Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? 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. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it’s a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. However, after investigating Dana (NYSE:DAN), we don’t think it’s current trends fit the mold of a multi-bagger.
What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
If you haven’t worked with ROCE before, it measures the ‘return’ (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Dana, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets – Current Liabilities)
0.041 = US$206m ÷ (US$7.7b – US$2.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2022).
Thus, Dana has an ROCE of 4.1%. Ultimately, that’s a low return and it under-performs the Auto Components industry average of 13%.
See our latest analysis for Dana
In the above chart we have measured Dana’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 Dana.
What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us
On the surface, the trend of ROCE at Dana doesn’t inspire confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 13% over the last five years. However, given capital employed and revenue have both increased it appears that the business is currently pursuing growth, at the consequence of short term returns. And if the increased capital generates additional returns, the business, and thus shareholders, will benefit in the long run.
The Key Takeaway
In summary, despite lower returns in the short term, we’re encouraged to see that Dana is reinvesting for growth and has higher sales as a result. And there could be an opportunity here if other metrics look good too, because the stock has declined 41% in the last five years. As a result, we’d recommend researching this stock further to uncover what other fundamentals of the business can show us.
One final note, you should learn about the 3 warning signs we’ve spotted with Dana (including 2 which can’t be ignored) .
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.
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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.
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