What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Hudson Technologies' (NASDAQ:HDSN) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

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. To calculate this metric for Hudson Technologies, this is the formula:

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

0.14 = US$37m ÷ (US$309m - US$47m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

So, Hudson Technologies has an ROCE of 14%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Trade Distributors industry average of 11% it's much better.

Check out our latest analysis for Hudson Technologies

In the above chart we have measured Hudson Technologies' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Hudson Technologies for free.

How Are Returns Trending?

The fact that Hudson Technologies is now generating some pre-tax profits from its prior investments is very encouraging. Shareholders would no doubt be pleased with this because the business was loss-making five years ago but is is now generating 14% on its capital. And unsurprisingly, like most companies trying to break into the black, Hudson Technologies is utilizing 334% more capital than it was five years ago. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, both common traits of a multi-bagger.

One more thing to note, Hudson Technologies has decreased current liabilities to 15% of total assets over this period, which effectively reduces the amount of funding from suppliers or short-term creditors. This tells us that Hudson Technologies has grown its returns without a reliance on increasing their current liabilities, which we're very happy with.

The Key Takeaway

In summary, it's great to see that Hudson Technologies has managed to break into profitability and is continuing to reinvest in its business. And with the stock having performed exceptionally well over the last five years, these patterns are being accounted for by investors. In light of that, we think it's worth looking further into this stock because if Hudson Technologies can keep these trends up, it could have a bright future ahead.

Hudson Technologies does come with some risks though, we found 2 warning signs in our investment analysis, and 1 of those is significant...

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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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.