Benzinga | Jul 24, 2020 02:30AM EDT

ROCE Insights For Marathon Oil

Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO) reported Q1 sales of $1.23 billion. Earnings fell to a loss of $46.00 million, resulting in a 101.67% decrease from last quarter. Marathon Oil earned $2.75 billion and saw $1.22 billion in sales in Q4.

What Is ROCE?

Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in Marathon Oil's Return on Capital Employed, a measure of yearly pre-tax profit relative to capital employed in a business. Generally, a higher ROCE suggests successful growth in a company and is a sign of higher earnings per share for shareholders in the future. In Q1, Marathon Oil posted an ROCE of 1.01%.

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.

Return on Capital Employed is an important measurement of efficiency and a useful tool when comparing companies that operate in the same industry. A relatively high ROCE indicates a company may be generating profits that can be reinvested into more capital, leading to higher returns and growing EPS for shareholders. In Marathon Oil's case, the positive ROCE ratio will be something investors pay attention to before making long-term financial decisions.

Q1 Earnings

Marathon Oil reported Q1 earnings per share at $-0.16/share against analyst predictions of $-0.14/share.