Do These Consumer Companies Pass Buffett's Test?

We'd all like to invest like the legendary Warren Buffett, turning thousands into millions or more. Buffett analyzes companies by calculating return on invested  capital (ROIC) to help determine whether a company has an economic moat -- the ability to earn returns on its money above that money's cost.  

ROIC is perhaps the most important metric in value investing. By determining a company's ROIC, you can see how well it's using the cash you entrust to it and whether it's actually creating value for you. Simply, ROIC divides a company's operating profit by how much investment it took to get that profit. The formula:

ROIC = Net operating profit after taxes / Invested capital

(You can read more on the nuances of the formula.)

This one-size-fits-all calculation cuts out many of the legal accounting tricks, such as excessive debt, that managers use to boost earnings numbers, and it provides you with an apples-to-apples way to evaluate businesses, even across industries. The higher the ROIC, the more efficiently the company uses capital.

Ultimately, we're looking for companies that can invest their money at rates that are higher than the cost of capital, which for most businesses is between 8% and 12%. We prefer to see ROIC above 12% at a minimum, along with a history of increasing returns, or at least steady returns, which indicate some durability to the company's economic moat.

Let's look at Kraft (NYSE: KFT  ) and two of its industry peers, to see how efficiently they use cash. Here are the ROIC figures for each company over a few periods.

Company	TTM	1 Year Ago	3 Years Ago	5 Years Ago
Kraft	5.7%	6.9%	5.7%	7.3%
General Mills (NYSE: GIS  )	12.5%	12.8%	9.7%	8.9%
Kellogg (NYSE: K  )	16.2%	18.0%	16.0%	15.1%

Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.

General Mills and Kellogg both surpass our 12% threshold for attractiveness. General Mills has improved its ROIC substantially from five years ago, suggesting that its competitive position is improving. Key rival Kellogg consistently shows better figures than General Mills and has remained relatively steady over the past half-decade, suggesting a solid competitive position. Kraft, on the other hand, consistently rings in figures in the mid- to high single digits.

Businesses with consistently high ROIC show that they're efficiently using capital. They also have the ability to treat shareholders well, because they can then use their extra cash to pay out dividends to us, buy back shares, or further invest in their franchise. And healthy and growing dividends are something that Warren Buffett has long loved.

So for more successful investments, dig a little deeper than the earnings headlines to find the company's ROIC. If you'd like, you can add these companies to your watchlist.