Looking Into Penn National Gaming's ROCE

Penn National Gaming PENN reported Q1 sales of $1.12 billion but lost a total of $608.60 million in terms of earnings, which is a 187.33% decrease from last quarter. Penn National Gaming reached earnings of $696.90 million and sales of $1.34 billion in Q4.

What Is Return On Capital Employed?

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

In Q1, Penn National Gaming posted a ROCE of -0.33%.

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 Penn National Gaming 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 lead to higher returns and earnings per share growth.

For Penn National Gaming, the return on capital employed ratio shows the current amount of assets may not actually be helping the company achieve higher returns, a note many investors will take into account when making long-term financial decisions.

Q1 Earnings

Penn National Gaming reported Q1 earnings per share of $0.06/share against analyst predictions of $0.28/share.