If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. So when we looked at Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

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. To calculate this metric for Plexus, this is the formula:

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

0.15 = US$228m ÷ (US$3.4b - US$1.9b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2023).

Thus, Plexus has an ROCE of 15%. That's a relatively normal return on capital, and it's around the 13% generated by the Electronic industry.

View our latest analysis for Plexus

In the above chart we have measured Plexus' 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 Plexus.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

We like the trends that we're seeing from Plexus. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last five years to 15%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 25%. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.

For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. Effectively this means that suppliers or short-term creditors are now funding 57% of the business, which is more than it was five years ago. And with current liabilities at those levels, that's pretty high.

The Bottom Line

To sum it up, Plexus has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. And with a respectable 56% awarded to those who held the stock over the last five years, you could argue that these developments are starting to get the attention they deserve. Therefore, we think it would be worth your time to check if these trends are going to continue.

Before jumping to any conclusions though, we need to know what value we're getting for the current share price. That's where you can check out our FREE intrinsic value estimation that compares the share price and estimated value.

While Plexus 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.