Returns On Capital Are A Standout For Comfort Systems USA (NYSE:FIX)

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base 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. And in light of that, the trends we're seeing at Comfort Systems USA's (NYSE:FIX) look very promising so lets take a look.

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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 Comfort Systems USA, this is the formula:

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

0.41 = US$1.1b ÷ (US$5.8b - US$3.0b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2025).

Therefore, Comfort Systems USA has an ROCE of 41%. That's a fantastic return and not only that, it outpaces the average of 13% earned by companies in a similar industry.

Check out our latest analysis for Comfort Systems USA NYSE:FIX Return on Capital Employed November 8th 2025

In the above chart we have measured Comfort Systems USA's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Comfort Systems USA .

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

Investors would be pleased with what's happening at Comfort Systems USA. Over the last five years, returns on capital employed have risen substantially to 41%. The company is effectively making more money per dollar of capital used, and it's worth noting that the amount of capital has increased too, by 168%. This can indicate that there's plenty of opportunities to invest capital internally and at ever higher rates, a combination that's common among multi-baggers.

For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. The current liabilities has increased to 52% of total assets, so the business is now more funded by the likes of its suppliers or short-term creditors. And with current liabilities at those levels, that's pretty high.

Story Continues

What We Can Learn From Comfort Systems USA's ROCE

In summary, it's great to see that Comfort Systems USA can compound returns by consistently reinvesting capital at increasing rates of return, because these are some of the key ingredients of those highly sought after multi-baggers. And a remarkable 1,841% total return over the last five years tells us that investors are expecting more good things to come in the future. So given the stock has proven it has promising trends, it's worth researching the company further to see if these trends are likely to persist.

If you want to continue researching Comfort Systems USA, you might be interested to know about the 1 warning signthat our analysis has discovered.

If you want to search for more stocks that have been earning high returns, check out this freelist of stocks with solid balance sheets that are also earning high 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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