Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. One common approach is to try and find a company with returns on capital employed (ROCE) that are increasing, in conjunction with a growing amount of capital employed. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. Although, when we looked at Orica (ASX:ORI), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Orica:

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

0.094 = AU$702m ÷ (AU$9.3b - AU$1.9b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

Thus, Orica has an ROCE of 9.4%. In absolute terms, that's a low return, but it's much better than the Chemicals industry average of 7.6%.

Check out our latest analysis for Orica

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Orica compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Orica .

So How Is Orica's ROCE Trending?

The returns on capital haven't changed much for Orica in recent years. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 9.4% and the business has deployed 32% more capital into its operations. Given the company has increased the amount of capital employed, it appears the investments that have been made simply don't provide a high return on capital.

In Conclusion...

In conclusion, Orica has been investing more capital into the business, but returns on that capital haven't increased. Additionally, the stock's total return to shareholders over the last five years has been flat, which isn't too surprising. Therefore based on the analysis done in this article, we don't think Orica has the makings of a multi-bagger.

One more thing to note, we've identified 1 warning sign with Orica and understanding it should be part of your investment process.

While Orica 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.

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