If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. 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. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in Singapore Airlines' (SGX:C6L) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

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 Singapore Airlines:

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

0.087 = S$2.8b ÷ (S$44b - S$13b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2024).

Therefore, Singapore Airlines has an ROCE of 8.7%. In absolute terms, that's a low return but it's around the Airlines industry average of 8.4%.

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Singapore Airlines 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 Singapore Airlines for free.

So How Is Singapore Airlines' ROCE Trending?

Even though ROCE is still low in absolute terms, it's good to see it's heading in the right direction. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 8.7%. Basically the business is earning more per dollar of capital invested and in addition to that, 37% more capital is being employed now too. So we're very much inspired by what we're seeing at Singapore Airlines thanks to its ability to profitably reinvest capital.

In Conclusion...

To sum it up, Singapore Airlines has proven it can reinvest in the business and generate higher returns on that capital employed, which is terrific. Since the stock has only returned 15% to shareholders over the last five years, the promising fundamentals may not be recognized yet by investors. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.

If you'd like to know more about Singapore Airlines, we've spotted 2 warning signs, and 1 of them doesn't sit too well with us.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive 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.