We're Watching These Trends At Matador Resources (NYSE:MTDR)
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What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? 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. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. So, when we ran our eye over Matador Resources' (NYSE:MTDR) trend of ROCE, we liked what we saw.
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 Matador Resources, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.11 = US$421m ÷ (US$4.3b - US$360m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2020).
Thus, Matador Resources has an ROCE of 11%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Oil and Gas industry average of 7.7% it's much better.
Check out our latest analysis for Matador Resources
In the above chart we have a measured Matador Resources' 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.
The Trend Of ROCE
While the returns on capital are good, they haven't moved much. The company has consistently earned 11% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 173% in that time. Since 11% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Over long periods of time, returns like these might not be too exciting, but with consistency they can pay off in terms of share price returns.
The Key Takeaway
In the end, Matador Resources has proven its ability to adequately reinvest capital at good rates of return. Yet over the last five years the stock has declined 63%, so the decline might provide an opening. That's why we think it'd be worthwhile to look further into this stock given the fundamentals are appealing.
One more thing to note, we've identified 2 warning signs with Matador Resources and understanding these should be part of your investment process.
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.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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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