What trends should we look for it we want to identify stocks that can multiply in value over the long term? 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. Although, when we looked at AdaptHealth (NASDAQ:AHCO), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for AdaptHealth:

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

0.045 = US$191m ÷ (US$4.7b - US$448m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).

Thus, AdaptHealth has an ROCE of 4.5%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Healthcare industry average of 9.9%.

Check out our latest analysis for AdaptHealth

Above you can see how the current ROCE for AdaptHealth compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering AdaptHealth here for free.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

When we looked at the ROCE trend at AdaptHealth, we didn't gain much confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 15% over the last five years. However it looks like AdaptHealth might be reinvesting for long term growth because while capital employed has increased, the company's sales haven't changed much in the last 12 months. It may take some time before the company starts to see any change in earnings from these investments.

On a side note, AdaptHealth has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 9.5% of total assets. That could partly explain why the ROCE has dropped. Effectively this means their suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of the business, which reduces some elements of risk. Since the business is basically funding more of its operations with it's own money, you could argue this has made the business less efficient at generating ROCE.

What We Can Learn From AdaptHealth's ROCE

In summary, AdaptHealth is reinvesting funds back into the business for growth but unfortunately it looks like sales haven't increased much just yet. And investors may be expecting the fundamentals to get a lot worse because the stock has crashed 77% over the last three years. All in all, the inherent trends aren't typical of multi-baggers, so if that's what you're after, we think you might have more luck elsewhere.

If you want to continue researching AdaptHealth, you might be interested to know about the 1 warning sign that our analysis has discovered.

While AdaptHealth may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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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.