United Internet's (ETR:UTDI) Returns On Capital Are Heading Higher
To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. So on that note, United Internet (ETR:UTDI) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?
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. The formula for this calculation on United Internet is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.084 = €738m ÷ (€11b - €2.1b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).
Therefore, United Internet has an ROCE of 8.4%. In absolute terms, that's a low return, but it's much better than the Telecom industry average of 5.2%.
View our latest analysis for United Internet
In the above chart we have measured United Internet's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for United Internet.
So How Is United Internet's ROCE Trending?
While in absolute terms it isn't a high ROCE, it's promising to see that it has been moving in the right direction. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last five years to 8.4%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 33%. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at United Internet thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.
The Bottom Line On United Internet's ROCE
In summary, it's great to see that United Internet can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. Given the stock has declined 44% in the last five years, this could be a good investment if the valuation and other metrics are also appealing. So researching this company further and determining whether or not these trends will continue seems justified.
On a separate note, we've found 2 warning signs for United Internet you'll probably want to know about.
While United Internet may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.
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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.
