Return On Capital Employed Overview: First Solar

Looking at Q3, First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) earned $207.16 million, a 307.03% increase from the preceding quarter. First Solar also posted a total of $927.57 million in sales, a 44.39% increase since Q2. First Solar earned $50.90 million, and sales totaled $642.41 million in Q2.

Why ROCE Is Significant

Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in First Solar’s Return on Capital Employed, a measure of yearly pre-tax profit relative to capital employed by a business. Generally, a higher ROCE suggests successful growth of a company and is a sign of higher earnings per share in the future. In Q3, First Solar posted an ROCE of 0.04%.

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 First Solar 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 generally lead to higher returns and earnings per share growth.

In First Solar's case, the positive ROCE ratio will be something investors pay attention to before making long-term financial decisions.

Q3 Earnings Insight

First Solar reported Q3 earnings per share at $1.45/share, which beat analyst predictions of $0.61/share.