If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Typically, we'll want to notice a trend of growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and alongside that, an expanding base 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 MOBI Industry's (TADAWUL:9517) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

Understanding 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 MOBI Industry:

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

0.37 = ر.س30m ÷ (ر.س125m - ر.س42m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

So, MOBI Industry has an ROCE of 37%. That's a fantastic return and not only that, it outpaces the average of 10% earned by companies in a similar industry.

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for MOBI Industry's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you'd like to look at how MOBI Industry has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of MOBI Industry's past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

So How Is MOBI Industry's ROCE Trending?

MOBI Industry's ROCE growth is quite impressive. More specifically, while the company has kept capital employed relatively flat over the last five years, the ROCE has climbed 243% in that same time. Basically the business is generating higher returns from the same amount of capital and that is proof that there are improvements in the company's efficiencies. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

What We Can Learn From MOBI Industry's ROCE

As discussed above, MOBI Industry appears to be getting more proficient at generating returns since capital employed has remained flat but earnings (before interest and tax) are up. Considering the stock has delivered 8.1% to its stockholders over the last three years, it may be fair to think that investors aren't fully aware of the promising trends yet. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.

MOBI Industry is not the only stock earning high returns. If you'd like to see more, check out our free list of companies earning high returns on equity with solid fundamentals.

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.