If we want to find a stock that could multiply over the long term, what are the underlying trends we should look for? 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. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. So, when we ran our eye over Sonic Automotive's (NYSE:SAH) trend of ROCE, we liked what we saw.

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 Sonic Automotive:

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

0.16 = US$516m ÷ (US$6.0b - US$2.8b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).

Therefore, Sonic Automotive has an ROCE of 16%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Specialty Retail industry average of 13% it's much better.

In the above chart we have measured Sonic Automotive's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Sonic Automotive .

So How Is Sonic Automotive's ROCE Trending?

While the returns on capital are good, they haven't moved much. The company has consistently earned 16% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 74% in that time. Since 16% 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.

On a side note, Sonic Automotive's current liabilities are still rather high at 46% of total assets. This effectively means that suppliers (or short-term creditors) are funding a large portion of the business, so just be aware that this can introduce some elements of risk. Ideally we'd like to see this reduce as that would mean fewer obligations bearing risks.

The Bottom Line On Sonic Automotive's ROCE

To sum it up, Sonic Automotive has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. Therefore it's no surprise that shareholders have earned a respectable 57% return if they held over the last five years. So while the positive underlying trends may be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.

If you want to know some of the risks facing Sonic Automotive we've found 3 warning signs (1 is a bit concerning!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.