If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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 Frontdoor (NASDAQ:FTDR), they do have a high ROCE, but we weren't exactly elated from how returns are trending.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Frontdoor:

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

0.35 = US$267m ÷ (US$1.1b - US$331m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

Therefore, Frontdoor has an ROCE of 35%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Consumer Services industry average of 7.6%.

In the above chart we have measured Frontdoor's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Frontdoor for free.

What Can We Tell From Frontdoor's ROCE Trend?

There hasn't been much to report for Frontdoor's returns and its level of capital employed because both metrics have been steady for the past five years. This tells us the company isn't reinvesting in itself, so it's plausible that it's past the growth phase. So it may not be a multi-bagger in the making, but given the decent 35% return on capital, it'd be difficult to find fault with the business's current operations.

What We Can Learn From Frontdoor's ROCE

In summary, Frontdoor isn't compounding its earnings but is generating decent returns on the same amount of capital employed. And in the last five years, the stock has given away 10% so the market doesn't look too hopeful on these trends strengthening any time soon. In any case, the stock doesn't have these traits of a multi-bagger discussed above, so if that's what you're looking for, we think you'd have more luck elsewhere.

One more thing, we've spotted 1 warning sign facing Frontdoor that you might find interesting.

Frontdoor 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.

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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.