comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) Is Doing The Right Things To Multiply Its Share Price
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. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) so let's look a bit deeper.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?
Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for comScore, this is the formula:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.017 = US$5.9m ÷ (US$519m - US$179m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2023).
Thus, comScore has an ROCE of 1.7%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Media industry average of 8.2%.
Check out our latest analysis for comScore
In the above chart we have measured comScore'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 report on analyst forecasts for the company.
How Are Returns Trending?
Like most people, we're pleased that comScore is now generating some pretax earnings. The company was generating losses five years ago, but now it's turned around, earning 1.7% which is no doubt a relief for some early shareholders. In regards to capital employed, comScore is using 58% less capital than it was five years ago, which on the surface, can indicate that the business has become more efficient at generating these returns. comScore could be selling under-performing assets since the ROCE is improving.
For the record though, there was a noticeable increase in the company's current liabilities over the period, so we would attribute some of the ROCE growth to that. The current liabilities has increased to 34% of total assets, so the business is now more funded by the likes of its suppliers or short-term creditors. Keep an eye out for future increases because when the ratio of current liabilities to total assets gets particularly high, this can introduce some new risks for the business.
Our Take On comScore's ROCE
From what we've seen above, comScore has managed to increase it's returns on capital all the while reducing it's capital base. Although the company may be facing some issues elsewhere since the stock has plunged 96% in the last five years. Still, it's worth doing some further research to see if the trends will continue into the future.
On a final note, we've found 2 warning signs for comScore that we think you should be aware of.
While comScore isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.
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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.
