Yahoo Finance Returns On Capital Are Showing Encouraging Signs At Envestnet (NYSE:ENV)
What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Envestnet's (NYSE:ENV) returns on capital, so let's have a look.
Understanding 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. The formula for this calculation on Envestnet is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.037 = US$59m ÷ (US$1.9b - US$257m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).
Therefore, Envestnet has an ROCE of 3.7%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Software industry average of 7.2%.
View our latest analysis for Envestnet
In the above chart we have measured Envestnet's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Envestnet for free.
So How Is Envestnet's ROCE Trending?
Even though ROCE is still low in absolute terms, it's good to see it's heading in the right direction. The numbers show that in the last five years, the returns generated on capital employed have grown considerably to 3.7%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 56% more capital is being employed now too. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.
On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 14%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. So this improvement in ROCE has come from the business' underlying economics, which is great to see.
In Conclusion...
In summary, it's great to see that Envestnet 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. And given the stock has remained rather flat over the last five years, there might be an opportunity here if other metrics are strong. That being the case, research into the company's current valuation metrics and future prospects seems fitting.
On the other side of ROCE, we have to consider valuation. That's why we have a FREE intrinsic value estimation for ENV on our platform that is definitely worth checking out.
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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