To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing 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. Although, when we looked at Reynolds Consumer Products (NASDAQ:REYN), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

What Is 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Reynolds Consumer Products:

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

0.12 = US$512m ÷ (US$4.8b - US$478m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

Thus, Reynolds Consumer Products has an ROCE of 12%. In isolation, that's a pretty standard return but against the Household Products industry average of 21%, it's not as good.

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Reynolds Consumer Products compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for Reynolds Consumer Products .

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

Over the past five years, Reynolds Consumer Products' 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. With that in mind, unless investment picks up again in the future, we wouldn't expect Reynolds Consumer Products to be a multi-bagger going forward. This probably explains why Reynolds Consumer Products is paying out 48% of its income to shareholders in the form of dividends. Given the business isn't reinvesting in itself, it makes sense to distribute a portion of earnings among shareholders.

On a side note, Reynolds Consumer Products has done well to reduce current liabilities to 10.0% of total assets over the last five years. Effectively suppliers now fund less of the business, which can lower some elements of risk.

The Key Takeaway

In a nutshell, Reynolds Consumer Products has been trudging along with the same returns from the same amount of capital over the last five years. And investors may be recognizing these trends since the stock has only returned a total of 11% to shareholders over the last three years. As a result, if you're hunting for a multi-bagger, we think you'd have more luck elsewhere.

Reynolds Consumer Products does have some risks though, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Reynolds Consumer Products that you might be interested in.

While Reynolds Consumer Products 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.