Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. So when we looked at JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

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. To calculate this metric for JD.com, this is the formula:

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

0.097 = CN¥37b ÷ (CN¥644b - CN¥266b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

Therefore, JD.com has an ROCE of 9.7%. On its own, that's a low figure but it's around the 12% average generated by the Multiline Retail industry.

Check out our latest analysis for JD.com

In the above chart we have measured JD.com's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for JD.com .

How Are Returns Trending?

While in absolute terms it isn't a high ROCE, it's promising to see that it has been moving in the right direction. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 9.7%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 234%. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.

One more thing to note, JD.com has decreased current liabilities to 41% of total assets over this period, which effectively reduces the amount of funding from suppliers or short-term creditors. This tells us that JD.com has grown its returns without a reliance on increasing their current liabilities, which we're very happy with. Nevertheless, there are some potential risks the company is bearing with current liabilities that high, so just keep that in mind.

What We Can Learn From JD.com's ROCE

All in all, it's terrific to see that JD.com is reaping the rewards from prior investments and is growing its capital base. Considering the stock has delivered 9.4% to its stockholders over the last five years, it may be fair to think that investors aren't fully aware of the promising trends yet. Given that, we'd look further into this stock in case it has more traits that could make it multiply in the long term.

Before jumping to any conclusions though, we need to know what value we're getting for the current share price. That's where you can check out our FREE intrinsic value estimation for JD that compares the share price and estimated value.

While JD.com 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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.