澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网

How Useful Is ROCE as an Indicator of a Company's Performance?

Close up Hands of Businessman Working With Business Document and Laptop on the Table

 

Kittikorn Nimitpara / Getty Images

Return on capital employed (ROCE) is a financial ratio that shows if a company is doing a good job of generating profits from its capital. Investors and analysts use ROCE to assess how ♔well a company leverages its financial resources to build and grow its business.

Capital creates wealth through investment and can include such things as a company's marketable securities, production machinery, land, software, patents, and brand names.

How a company chooses to allocate its 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:capital assets can directly impact its performance. In many cases, it can mean the difference between the company generating a positive 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:financial return and losing money. ROCE is a valuable tool, especially for measuring the returns of companies in capiꦚtal-intens🔴ive industries.

Key Takeaways

  • Return on capital employed (ROCE) is a financial ratio companies use to gauge their performance.
  • ROCE is an indicator of a company's efficiency because it measures the company's profitability after factoring in the capital used to achieve that profitability.
  • The formula for ROCE is earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) divided by the capital employed.
  • Investors and analysts often use ROCE as a useful tool when researching a company as a possible investment.
  • ROCE is particularly effective in comparing companies in capital-intensive industries, such as oil and gas companies.

Understanding Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)

While companies use ROCE as a useful metric to gauge their performance, they aren't the only ones who can benefit from it. Analysts, shareholders, and prospective investors all use ROCE as a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:reliable meas𝐆ure of corporate perform💫ance when analyzing a company for investment.

ROCE is especially useful when 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:comparing businesses within the same industry. I♔t is best employed in conjunction with other per𒅌formance measures rather than looked at in isolation. 

ROCE is one of several 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:profitability ratios used to evaluate a company's performance. It is designed to show how efficiently a company makes use of its available capital by looking at the net profit generated in relation to every dollar of capital utilized 💃by🔜 the company.

In addition to ROCE, companies may also review other key return ratios when analyzing their performance, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:such as return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:return on invested capital (ROIC).

Formula for ROCE

The formula used to calcu🔜late ROCE is as follows: 

ROCE = EBIT Capital Employed where: ROCE = Return on capital employed EBIT = Earnings before interest and tax \begin{aligned} &\text{ROCE} = \frac{ \text{EBIT} }{ \text{Capital Employed} }\\ &\textbf{where:}\\ &\text{ROCE} = \text{Return on capital employed}\\ &\text{EBIT} = \text{Earnings before interest and tax}\\ \end{aligned} ROCE=Capital EmployedEBITwhere:ROCE=Return on capital employedEBIT=Earnings ♔;before interest&nb𒉰sp;and tax

You can find a company's 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) on its 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:income statement. Some analysts use net profit rather than EBIT to do the calculation. You can 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:calculate capital employed from a company's balance sheet.

What ROCE Can Tell You

From an operations perspective, ROCE is a useful measure of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:financial efficiency, since it measures profitability after factoring in the amount of capital used to create thaꦐt level of profitability.

Note that because ROCE is calculated from earnings, it does not differentiate between debt capital and equiꦓty capital. Comparing ROCE to basic profit margin calculations can 🌟show the value of looking at ROCE.

Important

As a general rule, to indicate a company makes reasonably efficient use of capital, the ROCE should be equal to at least twice current💯 interest rates.

For example, consider two companies, one with a 10% profit margin and the other with a 15% profit margin. The second company appears to be performing better; however, if the second company uses twice as much capital to generate its profit, it is actually a less financially efficient company because it is not making maximum use of its revenues.

A higher ROCE shows that a higher percentage of the company's value can ultimately be returned as profit to stockholders.

Explain Like I'm Five

Most companies need to raise capital for funding, either by borrowing money (debt capital) or by selling stocks (equity capital). Return on capital employওed is a financial ratio that measures how mu꧃ch profit a company is making from its available capital.

Investors look at ROCE to determine if a company is using its capital effectively. It is calculated by dividing the company's earnings by the value of its machinery, real estate, and other profit-generating assets. This measurement is most useful for companies that need a large amount of capital, such as oil companies.

Is Return on Investment (ROI) the Same as Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)?

ROI and ROCE are financial metrics that determine how well a company utilizes its capital for operations and growth. ROCE is primarily used when comparing companies within the same industry, 🧸whereas ROI can be used with more flexibility. Unlike ROI, ROCE looks at a specific period of time. ROCE also looks at how capital is utilized within a company, while ROI looks at the returns of an investment.

What Is the Difference Between Capital Employed and Invested Capital?

Invested capital is the level of capital that is flowing through a business. Capital employed is the total capital that a firm has. Capital employed is a more comprehensive number than invested capital. It looks at the total equity and debt financ🃏ing minus short-term liabilities. Invested capital aims to calculate the return of a business relative to the capital the business is currently using.

How Do I Calculate Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)?

ROCE can be calculated by dividing earnings🧸 before interest and taxes (EBIT) by capital employed. It can also be calculated by dividing EBIT by the difference between total assets and current liabilities.

The Bottom Line

ROCE is a useful metric of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:financial performance, and it is particularly helpful in comparing companies engaged in capital-intensive industry sectors. It has gained a strong reputation as a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:benchmark financial tool for eval༺uating oil and gas companies.

However, no performance metric is perfect, and ROCE is most effectively used with other measures, such as 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:return on equity (RO🌱E). ROCE is not the best evaluation for companies with large, unused cash reserves.

Compare Accounts
The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Investopedia receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where listings appear. Investopedia does not include all offers available in the marketplace.

Related Articles