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Capital Allocation Trends At J D Wetherspoon (LON:JDW) Aren't Ideal

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. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. In light of that, when we looked at J D Wetherspoon (LON:JDW) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

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

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. To calculate this metric for J D Wetherspoon, this is the formula:

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

0.012 = UK£21m ÷ (UK£2.0b - UK£339m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2022).

So, J D Wetherspoon has an ROCE of 1.2%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Hospitality industry average of 6.2%.

View our latest analysis for J D Wetherspoon

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Above you can see how the current ROCE for J D Wetherspoon 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 J D Wetherspoon here for free.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

In terms of J D Wetherspoon's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 12% over the last five years. However, given capital employed and revenue have both increased it appears that the business is currently pursuing growth, at the consequence of short term returns. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.

What We Can Learn From J D Wetherspoon's ROCE

While returns have fallen for J D Wetherspoon in recent times, we're encouraged to see that sales are growing and that the business is reinvesting in its operations. And there could be an opportunity here if other metrics look good too, because the stock has declined 61% in the last five years. As a result, we'd recommend researching this stock further to uncover what other fundamentals of the business can show us.

If you'd like to know more about J D Wetherspoon, we've spotted 2 warning signs, and 1 of them is a bit unpleasant.

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.

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.

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