If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to 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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. That's why when we briefly looked at H&E Equipment Services' (NASDAQ:HEES) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with what we saw.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on H&E Equipment Services is:

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

0.11 = US$284m ÷ (US$2.8b - US$182m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

Thus, H&E Equipment Services 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%.

Above you can see how the current ROCE for H&E Equipment Services 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 H&E Equipment Services for free.

The Trend Of ROCE

While the returns on capital are good, they haven't moved much. The company has employed 41% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 11%. Since 11% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Over long periods of time, returns like these might not be too exciting, but with consistency they can pay off in terms of share price returns.

What We Can Learn From H&E Equipment Services' ROCE

The main thing to remember is that H&E Equipment Services has proven its ability to continually reinvest at respectable rates of return. Therefore it's no surprise that shareholders have earned a respectable 80% return if they held 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.

If you want to continue researching H&E Equipment Services, you might be interested to know about the 3 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

While H&E Equipment Services isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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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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