Yahoo Finance Is Ashtead Group (LON:AHT) Likely To Turn Things Around?
If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. However, after investigating Ashtead Group (LON:AHT), we don't think it's current trends fit the mold of a multi-bagger.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Ashtead Group:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.13 = UK£1.2b ÷ (UK£11b - UK£737m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to April 2020).
Thus, Ashtead Group has an ROCE of 13%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Trade Distributors industry average of 12%.
Check out our latest analysis for Ashtead Group
In the above chart we have a measured Ashtead Group'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 Ashtead Group.
What Does the ROCE Trend For Ashtead Group Tell Us?
In terms of Ashtead Group's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 16% over the last five years. Although, given both revenue and the amount of assets employed in the business have increased, it could suggest the company is investing in growth, and the extra capital has led to a short-term reduction in ROCE. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.
The Key Takeaway
In summary, despite lower returns in the short term, we're encouraged to see that Ashtead Group is reinvesting for growth and has higher sales as a result. And long term investors must be optimistic going forward because the stock has returned a huge 187% to shareholders in the last five years. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we would look further into this stock to make sure the other metrics justify the positive view.
On a final note, we've found 2 warning signs for Ashtead Group that we think you should be aware of.
While Ashtead Group 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.
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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