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. 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 looked at Olympic Steel (NASDAQ:ZEUS) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on Olympic Steel is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.046 = US$40m ÷ (US$1.1b - US$188m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).
Thus, Olympic Steel has an ROCE of 4.6%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Metals and Mining industry average of 9.5%.
Check out our latest analysis for Olympic Steel
In the above chart we have measured Olympic Steel's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like, you can check out the forecasts from the analysts covering Olympic Steel for free.
What Does the ROCE Trend For Olympic Steel Tell Us?
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 4.6%. The amount of capital employed has increased too, by 54%. The increasing returns on a growing amount of capital is common amongst multi-baggers and that's why we're impressed.
What We Can Learn From Olympic Steel's ROCE
A company that is growing its returns on capital and can consistently reinvest in itself is a highly sought after trait, and that's what Olympic Steel has. Since the stock has returned a staggering 275% to shareholders over the last five years, it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.
Like most companies, Olympic Steel does come with some risks, and we've found 2 warning signs that you should be aware of.
While Olympic Steel isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.
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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.