What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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 YouGov (LON:YOU) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

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 YouGov, this is the formula:

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

0.096 = UK£40m ÷ (UK£610m - UK£195m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to July 2024).

So, YouGov has an ROCE of 9.6%.  Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Media industry average of 13%.

Check out our latest analysis for YouGov AIM:YOU Return on Capital Employed March 6th 2025

Above you can see how the current ROCE for YouGov 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 YouGov  for free.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

When we looked at the ROCE trend at YouGov, we didn't gain much confidence. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 14% 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. And if the increased capital generates additional returns, the business, and thus shareholders, will benefit in the long run.

In Conclusion...

In summary, despite lower returns in the short term, we're encouraged to see that YouGov is reinvesting for growth and has higher sales as a result. And there could be an opportunity here if other metrics look good too, because the stock has declined 48% 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 YouGov, 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 freelist 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.

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