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. 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 looked at Century Aluminum (NASDAQ:CENX) and its trend of ROCE, we really 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. To calculate this metric for Century Aluminum, this is the formula:

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

0.029 = US$32m ÷ (US$1.8b - US$763m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

Thus, Century Aluminum has an ROCE of 2.9%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Metals and Mining industry average of 10%.

In the above chart we have measured Century Aluminum'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 Century Aluminum .

So How Is Century Aluminum's ROCE Trending?

Shareholders will be relieved that Century Aluminum has broken into profitability. The company was generating losses five years ago, but has managed to turn it around and as we saw earlier is now earning 2.9%, which is always encouraging. While returns have increased, the amount of capital employed by Century Aluminum has remained flat over the period. That being said, while an increase in efficiency is no doubt appealing, it'd be helpful to know if the company does have any investment plans going forward. After all, a company can only become a long term multi-bagger if it continually reinvests in itself at high rates of return.

For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. Essentially the business now has suppliers or short-term creditors funding about 41% of its operations, which isn't ideal. And with current liabilities at those levels, that's pretty high.

The Key Takeaway

To sum it up, Century Aluminum is collecting higher returns from the same amount of capital, and that's impressive. Since the stock has returned a solid 45% to shareholders over the last five years, it's fair to say investors are beginning to recognize these changes. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.

Century Aluminum does have some risks though, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Century Aluminum that you might be interested in.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high 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.