What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. So on that note, Virco Mfg (NASDAQ:VIRC) looks quite promising in regards to its trends of return on capital.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Virco Mfg is:

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

0.19 = US$33m ÷ (US$210m - US$42m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2024).

So, Virco Mfg has an ROCE of 19%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Commercial Services industry average of 10% it's much better.

Check out our latest analysis for Virco Mfg

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Virco Mfg 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 analyst report for Virco Mfg .

The Trend Of ROCE

Investors would be pleased with what's happening at Virco Mfg. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 19%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 47%. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.

In Conclusion...

In summary, it's great to see that Virco Mfg can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. Since the stock has returned a staggering 178% to shareholders over the last five years, it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Virco Mfg can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

If you want to continue researching Virco Mfg, you might be interested to know about the 1 warning sign that our analysis has discovered.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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