If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to 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 ran our eye over UFP Technologies' (NASDAQ:UFPT) trend of ROCE, we liked what we saw.

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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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for UFP Technologies:

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

0.16 = US$92m ÷ (US$643m - US$80m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).

Thus, UFP Technologies has an ROCE of 16%. On its own, that's a standard return, however it's much better than the 10% generated by the Medical Equipment industry.

See our latest analysis for UFP Technologies

Above you can see how the current ROCE for UFP Technologies 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 UFP Technologies for free.

What Can We Tell From UFP Technologies' ROCE Trend?

The trend of ROCE doesn't stand out much, but returns on a whole are decent. The company has employed 218% more capital in the last five years, and the returns on that capital have remained stable at 16%. Since 16% 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 UFP Technologies' ROCE

In the end, UFP Technologies has proven its ability to adequately reinvest capital at good rates of return. And long term investors would be thrilled with the 455% return they've received over the last five years. So while the positive underlying trends may be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.

One more thing to note, we've identified 2 warning signs with UFP Technologies and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high 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.