Return On Capital Employed Overview: General Dynamics

In this article:

General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) showed a loss in earnings since Q1, totaling $727.00 million. Sales, on the other hand, increased by 5.89% to $9.26 billion during Q2. General Dynamics earned $848.00 million and saw $8.75 billion in sales in Q1.

What Is ROCE?

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 Q2, General Dynamics posted an ROCE of 0.03%.

View more earnings on GD

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 General Dynamics 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 General Dynamics, 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.

Q2 Earnings

General Dynamics reported Q2 earnings per share at $2.18/share against analyst predictions of $2.15/share.

See more from Benzinga

© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Advertisement