Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. So when we looked at AvePoint (NASDAQ:AVPT) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

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

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. To calculate this metric for AvePoint, this is the formula:

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

0.054 = US$27m ÷ (US$744m - US$245m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).

So, AvePoint has an ROCE of 5.4%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Software industry average of 7.5%.

Above you can see how the current ROCE for AvePoint 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 AvePoint .

So How Is AvePoint's ROCE Trending?

We're delighted to see that AvePoint is reaping rewards from its investments and is now generating some pre-tax profits. The company was generating losses five years ago, but now it's earning 5.4% which is a sight for sore eyes. And unsurprisingly, like most companies trying to break into the black, AvePoint is utilizing 670% more capital than it was five years ago. This can tell us that the company has plenty of reinvestment opportunities that are able to generate higher returns.

In another part of our analysis, we noticed that the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets decreased to 33%, which broadly means the business is relying less on its suppliers or short-term creditors to fund its operations. Therefore we can rest assured that the growth in ROCE is a result of the business' fundamental improvements, rather than a cooking class featuring this company's books.

The Bottom Line

To the delight of most shareholders, AvePoint has now broken into profitability. And since the stock has fallen 17% over the last five years, there might be an opportunity here. With that in mind, we believe the promising trends warrant this stock for further investigation.

While AvePoint may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity.

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.