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Investors Will Want Kelt Exploration's (TSE:KEL) Growth In ROCE To Persist

There are a few key trends to look for if we want to identify the next multi-bagger. 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. So when we looked at Kelt Exploration (TSE:KEL) and its trend of ROCE, we really liked what we saw.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. To calculate this metric for Kelt Exploration, this is the formula:

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

0.18 = CA$148m ÷ (CA$967m - CA$125m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2022).

So, Kelt Exploration has an ROCE of 18%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Oil and Gas industry average of 12% it's much better.

See our latest analysis for Kelt Exploration

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In the above chart we have measured Kelt Exploration'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 report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What Does the ROCE Trend For Kelt Exploration Tell Us?

Like most people, we're pleased that Kelt Exploration is now generating some pretax earnings. Historically the company was generating losses but as we can see from the latest figures referenced above, they're now earning 18% on their capital employed. At first glance, it seems the business is getting more proficient at generating returns, because over the same period, the amount of capital employed has reduced by 25%. Kelt Exploration could be selling under-performing assets since the ROCE is improving.

In Conclusion...

In summary, it's great to see that Kelt Exploration has been able to turn things around and earn higher returns on lower amounts of capital. Since the stock has only returned 14% to shareholders over the last five years, the promising fundamentals may not be recognized yet by investors. So exploring more about this stock could uncover a good opportunity, if the valuation and other metrics stack up.

On a final note, we've found 1 warning sign for Kelt Exploration that we think you should be aware of.

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.