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. Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. However, after investigating discoverIE Group (LON:DSCV), we don't think it's current trends fit the mold of a multi-bagger.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

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 discoverIE Group is:

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

0.083 = UK￡41m ÷ (UK￡692m - UK￡197m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

So, discoverIE Group has an ROCE of 8.3%. On its own, that's a low figure but it's around the 10% average generated by the Electrical industry.

View our latest analysis for discoverIE Group

In the above chart we have measured discoverIE 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 discoverIE Group.

What Does the ROCE Trend For discoverIE Group Tell Us?

The returns on capital haven't changed much for discoverIE Group in recent years. The company has employed 125% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 8.3%. This poor ROCE doesn't inspire confidence right now, and with the increase in capital employed, it's evident that the business isn't deploying the funds into high return investments.

The Bottom Line

As we've seen above, discoverIE Group's returns on capital haven't increased but it is reinvesting in the business. Although the market must be expecting these trends to improve because the stock has gained 88% over the last five years. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward.

If you're still interested in discoverIE Group it's worth checking out our FREE intrinsic value approximation to see if it's trading at an attractive price in other respects.