If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount 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. In light of that, when we looked at Signet Jewelers (NYSE:SIG) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

Understanding 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 Signet Jewelers is:

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

0.17 = US$738m ÷ (US$6.3b - US$2.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to October 2022).

Therefore, Signet Jewelers has an ROCE of 17%. By itself that's a normal return on capital and it's in line with the industry's average returns of 17%.

View our latest analysis for Signet Jewelers

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Signet Jewelers compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free report for Signet Jewelers.

How Are Returns Trending?

Things have been pretty stable at Signet Jewelers, with its capital employed and returns on that capital staying somewhat the same for the last five years. Businesses with these traits tend to be mature and steady operations because they're past the growth phase. With that in mind, unless investment picks up again in the future, we wouldn't expect Signet Jewelers to be a multi-bagger going forward.

What We Can Learn From Signet Jewelers' ROCE

In summary, Signet Jewelers isn't compounding its earnings but is generating stable returns on the same amount of capital employed. Although the market must be expecting these trends to improve because the stock has gained 68% over the last five years. Ultimately, if the underlying trends persist, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger going forward.

One more thing, we've spotted 2 warning signs facing Signet Jewelers that you might find interesting.

While Signet Jewelers 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.