Return On Capital Employed Overview: Lam Research

Looking at Q4, Lam Research LRCX earned $755.72 million, a 8.88% increase from the preceding quarter. Lam Research also posted a total of $2.79 billion in sales, a 11.5% increase since Q3. Lam Research earned $694.11 million, and sales totaled $2.50 billion in Q3.

What Is Return On Capital Employed?

Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in Lam Research’s Return on Capital Employed, a measure of yearly pre-tax profit relative to capital employed in a business. Generally, a higher ROCE suggests successful growth in a company and is a sign of higher earnings per share for shareholders in the future. In Q4, Lam Research posted an ROCE of 0.15%.

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

ROCE is an important metric for the comparison of similar companies. A relatively high ROCE shows Lam Research 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 Lam Research, 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.

Q4 Earnings Recap

Lam Research reported Q4 earnings per share at $4.78/share, which beat analyst predictions of $4.04/share.