Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. 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. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at GXO Logistics (NYSE:GXO) so let's look a bit deeper.

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 GXO Logistics:

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

0.044 = US$374m ÷ (US$12b - US$3.4b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

So, GXO Logistics has an ROCE of 4.4%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Logistics industry average of 13%.

In the above chart we have measured GXO Logistics' 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 GXO Logistics for free.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

We're glad to see that ROCE is heading in the right direction, even if it is still low at the moment. The data shows that returns on capital have increased substantially over the last four years to 4.4%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 77%. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at GXO Logistics thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.

The Key Takeaway

In summary, it's great to see that GXO Logistics can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. Given the stock has declined 43% in the last three years, this could be a good investment if the valuation and other metrics are also appealing. So researching this company further and determining whether or not these trends will continue seems justified.

If you want to continue researching GXO Logistics, you might be interested to know about the 3 warning signs that our analysis has discovered.

While GXO Logistics isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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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.