Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. With that in mind, the ROCE of IDEX (NYSE:IEX) looks decent, right now, so lets see what the trend of returns can tell us.

Understanding 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for IDEX:

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

0.15 = US$776m ÷ (US$5.7b - US$488m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Thus, IDEX has an ROCE of 15%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 12% generated by the Machinery industry.

See our latest analysis for IDEX

Above you can see how the current ROCE for IDEX 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 report for IDEX.

So How Is IDEX's ROCE Trending?

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has employed 62% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 15%. 15% is a pretty standard return, and it provides some comfort knowing that IDEX has consistently earned this amount. 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.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, IDEX has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. And since the stock has risen strongly over the last five years, it appears the market might expect this trend to continue. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we still believe the stock deserves further research.

IDEX could be trading at an attractive price in other respects, so you might find our free intrinsic value estimation on our platform quite valuable.

While IDEX 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.