If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. So when we looked at Check Point Software Technologies (NASDAQ:CHKP), they do have a high ROCE, but we weren't exactly elated from how returns are trending.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Check Point Software Technologies is:

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

0.24 = US$901m ÷ (US$5.4b - US$1.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

So, Check Point Software Technologies has an ROCE of 24%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Software industry average of 7.6%.

View our latest analysis for Check Point Software Technologies

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Check Point Software Technologies 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 Check Point Software Technologies.

So How Is Check Point Software Technologies' ROCE Trending?

Over the past five years, Check Point Software Technologies' ROCE and capital employed have both remained mostly flat. It's not uncommon to see this when looking at a mature and stable business that isn't re-investing its earnings because it has likely passed that phase of the business cycle. So it may not be a multi-bagger in the making, but given the decent 24% return on capital, it'd be difficult to find fault with the business's current operations.

Another point to note, we noticed the company has increased current liabilities over the last five years. This is intriguing because if current liabilities hadn't increased to 32% of total assets, this reported ROCE would probably be less than24% because total capital employed would be higher.The 24% ROCE could be even lower if current liabilities weren't 32% of total assets, because the the formula would show a larger base of total capital employed. With that in mind, just be wary if this ratio increases in the future, because if it gets particularly high, this brings with it some new elements of risk.

The Bottom Line

In summary, Check Point Software Technologies isn't compounding its earnings but is generating decent returns on the same amount of capital employed. And with the stock having returned a mere 40% in the last five years to shareholders, you could argue that they're aware of these lackluster trends. As a result, if you're hunting for a multi-bagger, we think you'd have more luck elsewhere.

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

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.