StepStone Group's Return on Invested Capital Overview

StepStone Group STEP brought in sales totaling $190.34 million during Q1 according to data provided by Benzinga Pro. However, earnings decreased 120.72%, resulting in a loss of $21.47 million. StepStone Group earned $103.61 million, and sales totaled $364.69 million in Q4.

What Is ROIC?

Earnings data without context is not clear and can difficult to base trading decisions on. Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) helps to filter signal from noise by measuring yearly pre-tax profit relative to invested capital by a business. Generally, a higher ROIC suggests successful growth of a company and is a sign of higher earnings per share in the future. In Q1, StepStone Group posted an ROIC of -1.02%.

It is important to keep in mind that ROIC evaluates past performance and is not used as a predictive tool. It is a good measure of a company's recent performance, but does not account for factors that could affect earnings and sales in the near future.

ROIC is a powerful metric for comparing the effectiveness of capital allocation for similar companies. A relatively high ROIC shows StepStone Group 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 invested capital, some of that money can be reinvested in more capital which will generally lead to higher returns and, ultimately, earnings per share (EPS) growth.

For StepStone Group, a negative ROIC ratio of -1.02% suggests that management may not be effectively allocating their capital. Effective capital allocation is a positive indicator that a company will achieve more durable success and favorable long-term returns; poor capital allocation can be a leech on the performance of a company over time.