Is Matrix Service (NASDAQ:MTRX) A Future Multi-bagger?
Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. So when we looked at Matrix Service (NASDAQ:MTRX) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for Matrix Service, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.05 = US$17m ÷ (US$517m - US$176m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2020).
So, Matrix Service has an ROCE of 5.0%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Energy Services industry average of 8.0%.
View our latest analysis for Matrix Service
In the above chart we have measured Matrix Service's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.
How Are Returns Trending?
While the ROCE isn't as high as some other companies out there, it's great to see it's on the up. More specifically, while the company has kept capital employed relatively flat over the last five years, the ROCE has climbed 64% in that same time. So our take on this is that the business has increased efficiencies to generate these higher returns, all the while not needing to make any additional investments. The company is doing well in that sense, and it's worth investigating what the management team has planned for long term growth prospects.
On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 34%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. Therefore we can rest assured that the growth in ROCE is a result of the business' fundamental improvements, rather than a cooking class featuring this company's books.
The Bottom Line
To sum it up, Matrix Service is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. And since the stock has fallen 58% over the last five years, there might be an opportunity here. So researching this company further and determining whether or not these trends will continue seems justified.
While Matrix Service looks impressive, no company is worth an infinite price. The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether MTRX is currently trading for a fair price.
If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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