If we want to find a potential multi-bagger, often there are underlying trends that can provide clues. 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. Although, when we looked at Reynolds Consumer Products (NASDAQ:REYN), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

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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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Reynolds Consumer Products:

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

0.13 = US$549m ÷ (US$4.9b - US$539m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

Thus, Reynolds Consumer Products has an ROCE of 13%. In isolation, that's a pretty standard return but against the Household Products industry average of 18%, it's not as good.

View our latest analysis for Reynolds Consumer Products

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Reynolds Consumer Products 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 Reynolds Consumer Products for free.

How Are Returns Trending?

There hasn't been much to report for Reynolds Consumer Products' returns and its level of capital employed because both metrics have been steady for the past five years. Businesses with these traits tend to be mature and steady operations because they're past the growth phase. So unless we see a substantial change at Reynolds Consumer Products in terms of ROCE and additional investments being made, we wouldn't hold our breath on it being a multi-bagger. This probably explains why Reynolds Consumer Products is paying out 55% of its income to shareholders in the form of dividends. Given the business isn't reinvesting in itself, it makes sense to distribute a portion of earnings among shareholders.

In Conclusion...

We can conclude that in regards to Reynolds Consumer Products' returns on capital employed and the trends, there isn't much change to report on. Unsurprisingly then, the total return to shareholders over the last five years has been flat. On the whole, we aren't too inspired by the underlying trends and we think there may be better chances of finding a multi-bagger elsewhere.

Reynolds Consumer Products does have some risks though, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Reynolds Consumer Products that you might be interested in.

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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.