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. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. So, when we ran our eye over CDW's (NASDAQ:CDW) trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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 CDW:

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

0.22 = US$1.7b ÷ (US$13b - US$5.3b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

Therefore, CDW has an ROCE of 22%. That's a fantastic return and not only that, it outpaces the average of 11% earned by companies in a similar industry.

Above you can see how the current ROCE for CDW 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 CDW .

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

CDW deserves to be commended in regards to it's returns. The company has consistently earned 22% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 78% in that time. Now considering ROCE is an attractive 22%, this combination is actually pretty appealing because it means the business can consistently put money to work and generate these high returns. If CDW can keep this up, we'd be very optimistic about its future.

The Bottom Line

In short, we'd argue CDW has the makings of a multi-bagger since its been able to compound its capital at very profitable rates of return. And long term investors would be thrilled with the 122% return they've received over the last five years. So while the positive underlying trends may be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.

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

If you want to search for more stocks that have been earning high returns, check out this free list of stocks with solid balance sheets that are also earning high 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.