Return On Capital Employed Overview: Plug Power

In Q3, Plug Power PLUG posted sales of $106.99 million. Earnings were up 8.82%, but Plug Power still reported an overall loss of $28.66 million. Plug Power collected $68.07 million in revenue during Q2, but reported earnings showed a $26.34 million loss.

What Is Return On Capital Employed?

Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in Plug Power’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, Plug Power posted an ROCE of -0.05%.

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 Plug Power 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 Plug Power's case, the ROCE ratio shows the amount of assets may not be helping the company achieve higher returns. Investors may take this into account before making any long-term financial decisions.

Q3 Earnings Recap

Plug Power reported Q3 earnings per share at $-0.04/share, which beat analyst predictions of $-0.07/share.