If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing 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. That's why when we briefly looked at Gentherm's (NASDAQ:THRM) ROCE trend, we were pretty happy with what we saw.

What Is 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 Gentherm is:

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

0.13 = US$119m ÷ (US$1.2b - US$326m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

Thus, Gentherm has an ROCE of 13%. In absolute terms, that's a pretty normal return, and it's somewhat close to the Auto Components industry average of 11%.

In the above chart we have measured Gentherm's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for Gentherm .

The Trend Of ROCE

While the current returns on capital are decent, they haven't changed much. Over the past five years, ROCE has remained relatively flat at around 13% and the business has deployed 55% more capital into its operations. 13% is a pretty standard return, and it provides some comfort knowing that Gentherm has consistently earned this amount. 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.

Our Take On Gentherm's ROCE

To sum it up, Gentherm has simply been reinvesting capital steadily, at those decent rates of return. And given the stock has only risen 33% over the last five years, we'd suspect the market is beginning to recognize these trends. So because of the trends we're seeing, we'd recommend looking further into this stock to see if it has the makings of a multi-bagger.

Gentherm could be trading at an attractive price in other respects, so you might find our free intrinsic value estimation for THRM on our platform quite valuable.

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.