Yahoo Finance Cochlear (ASX:COH) May Have Issues Allocating Its Capital
If we want to find a stock that could multiply over the long term, what are the underlying trends we should look for? 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. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. Having said that, while the ROCE is currently high for Cochlear (ASX:COH), we aren't jumping out of our chairs because returns are decreasing.
Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)
For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. The formula for this calculation on Cochlear is:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.23 = AU$472m ÷ (AU$2.5b - AU$517m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).
So, Cochlear has an ROCE of 23%. In absolute terms that's a great return and it's even better than the Medical Equipment industry average of 9.3%.
View our latest analysis for Cochlear
In the above chart we have measured Cochlear's 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 analyst report for Cochlear .
The Trend Of ROCE
When we looked at the ROCE trend at Cochlear, we didn't gain much confidence. To be more specific, while the ROCE is still high, it's fallen from 39% where it was five years ago. Although, given both revenue and the amount of assets employed in the business have increased, it could suggest the company is investing in growth, and the extra capital has led to a short-term reduction in ROCE. If these investments prove successful, this can bode very well for long term stock performance.
The Bottom Line On Cochlear's ROCE
Even though returns on capital have fallen in the short term, we find it promising that revenue and capital employed have both increased for Cochlear. Furthermore the stock has climbed 79% over the last five years, it would appear that investors are upbeat about the future. So while the underlying trends could already be accounted for by investors, we still think this stock is worth looking into further.
While Cochlear doesn't shine too bright in this respect, it's still worth seeing if the company is trading at attractive prices. You can find that out with our FREE intrinsic value estimation for COH on our platform.
Cochlear is not the only stock earning high returns. If you'd like to see more, check out our free list of companies earning high returns on equity with solid fundamentals.
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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.
