Return on Capital Employed Overview: SPX

Pulled from Benzinga Pro data SPX SPXC posted Q2 earnings of $12.90 million, an increase from Q1 of 59.31%. Sales dropped to $296.70 million, a 25.55% decrease between quarters. SPX earned $31.70 million, and sales totaled $398.50 million in Q1.

Why ROCE Is Significant

Return on Capital Employed is a measure of yearly pre-tax profit relative to capital employed by a business. Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in a company's ROCE. A higher ROCE is generally representative of successful growth of a company and is a sign of higher earnings per share in the future. A low or negative ROCE suggests the opposite. In Q2, SPX posted an ROCE of 0.02%.

Keep in mind, while ROCE is a good measure of a company's recent performance, it is not a highly reliable predictor of a company's earnings or sales in the near future.

ROCE is an important metric for the comparison of similar companies. A relatively high ROCE shows SPX is potentially operating at a higher level of efficiency than other companies in its industry. If the company is generating high profits with its current level of capital, some of that money can be reinvested in more capital which will generally lead to higher returns and earnings per share growth.

For SPX, the return on capital employed ratio shows the number of assets can actually help the company achieve higher returns, an important note investors will take into account when gauging the payoff from long-term financing strategies.

Upcoming Earnings Estimate

SPX reported Q2 earnings per share at $0.49/share, which beat analyst predictions of $0.46/share.