Looking Into Herc Holdings's Return On Capital Employed

Herc Holdings HRI posted a 8.55% decrease in earnings from Q3. Sales, however, increased by 13.95% over the previous quarter to $520.40 million. Despite the increase in sales this quarter, the decrease in earnings may suggest Herc Holdings is not utilizing their capital as effectively as possible. Herc Holdings reached earnings of $73.70 million and sales of $456.70 million in Q3.

Why ROCE Is Significant

Return on Capital Employed is a measure of yearly pre-tax profit relative to capital employed by a business. Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in a company's ROCE. A higher ROCE is generally representative of successful growth of a company and is a sign of higher earnings per share in the future. A low or negative ROCE suggests the opposite. In Q4, Herc Holdings posted an ROCE of 0.09%.

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

Q4 Earnings Insight

Herc Holdings reported Q4 earnings per share at $1.35/share, which beat analyst predictions of $1.03/share.