There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. So when we looked at George Weston (TSE:WN) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on George Weston is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.12 = CA$4.4b ÷ (CA$49b - CA$11b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

Therefore, George Weston has an ROCE of 12%. That's a pretty standard return and it's in line with the industry average of 12%.

Check out our latest analysis for George Weston

Above you can see how the current ROCE for George Weston compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering George Weston for free.

What Does the ROCE Trend For George Weston Tell Us?

George Weston is showing promise given that its ROCE is trending up and to the right. The figures show that over the last five years, ROCE has grown 55% whilst employing roughly the same amount of capital. 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. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, George Weston is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. And with the stock having performed exceptionally well over the last five years, these patterns are being accounted for by investors. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if George Weston can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

If you want to know some of the risks facing George Weston we've found 3 warning signs (1 can't be ignored!) that you should be aware of before investing here.