To find a multi-bagger stock, what are the underlying trends we should look for in a business? 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. Basically this means that a company has profitable initiatives that it can continue to reinvest in, which is a trait of a compounding machine. So, when we ran our eye over Koppers Holdings' (NYSE:KOP) trend of ROCE, we liked what we saw.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

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 Koppers Holdings:

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

0.11 = US$190m ÷ (US$2.0b - US$287m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2024).

Thus, Koppers Holdings has an ROCE of 11%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Chemicals industry average of 8.4% it's much better.

Check out our latest analysis for Koppers Holdings

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Koppers Holdings compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for Koppers Holdings .

So How Is Koppers Holdings' ROCE Trending?

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has consistently earned 11% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 30% in that time. Since 11% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Stable returns in this ballpark can be unexciting, but if they can be maintained over the long run, they often provide nice rewards to shareholders.

What We Can Learn From Koppers Holdings' ROCE

In the end, Koppers Holdings has proven its ability to adequately reinvest capital at good rates of return. Despite the good fundamentals, total returns from the stock have been virtually flat over the last five years. That's why we think it'd be worthwhile to look further into this stock given the fundamentals are appealing.

One final note, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Koppers Holdings (including 1 which makes us a bit uncomfortable) .

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.