If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. 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 ASGN's (NYSE:ASGN) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with what we saw.

What Is 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 ASGN is:

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

0.11 = US$333m ÷ (US$3.5b - US$390m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

Thus, ASGN has an ROCE of 11%. By itself that's a normal return on capital and it's in line with the industry's average returns of 11%.

In the above chart we have measured ASGN's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for ASGN .

How Are Returns Trending?

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has consistently earned 11% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 24% in that time. Since 11% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Stable returns in this ballpark can be unexciting, but if they can be maintained over the long run, they often provide nice rewards to shareholders.

What We Can Learn From ASGN's ROCE

In the end, ASGN has proven its ability to adequately reinvest capital at good rates of return. Therefore it's no surprise that shareholders have earned a respectable 42% return if they held over the last five years. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we still believe the stock deserves further research.

On a final note, we've found 1 warning sign for ASGN that we think you should be aware of.

While ASGN 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.