If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. 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. That's why when we briefly looked at SiteOne Landscape Supply's (NYSE:SITE) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with what we saw.

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 SiteOne Landscape Supply is:

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

0.11 = US$251m ÷ (US$3.0b - US$655m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2023).

Therefore, SiteOne Landscape Supply has an ROCE of 11%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Trade Distributors industry average of 13%.

View our latest analysis for SiteOne Landscape Supply

Above you can see how the current ROCE for SiteOne Landscape Supply 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 SiteOne Landscape Supply here for free.

So How Is SiteOne Landscape Supply's ROCE Trending?

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has consistently earned 11% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 156% in that time. Since 11% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Stable returns in this ballpark can be unexciting, but if they can be maintained over the long run, they often provide nice rewards to shareholders.

Our Take On SiteOne Landscape Supply's ROCE

To sum it up, SiteOne Landscape Supply has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. Therefore it's no surprise that shareholders have earned a respectable 97% return if they held over the last five years. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we still believe the stock deserves further research.

Like most companies, SiteOne Landscape Supply does come with some risks, and we've found 1 warning sign that you should be aware of.

While SiteOne Landscape Supply 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.