Benzinga | Aug 20, 2021 01:44PM EDT

Return on Capital Employed Overview: Apollo Endosurgery

Pulled from Benzinga Pro data Apollo Endosurgery (NASDAQ:APEN) reported Q2 sales of $16.61 million. Earnings fell to a loss of $5.24 million, resulting in a 39.61% decrease from last quarter. In Q1, Apollo Endosurgery brought in $13.86 million in sales but lost $3.75 million in earnings.

What Is ROCE?

Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in Apollo Endosurgery'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 Q2, Apollo Endosurgery posted an ROCE of -1.93%.

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 Apollo Endosurgery is potentially operating at a higher level of efficiency than other companies in its industry. If the company is generating high profits with itscurrent 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 Apollo Endosurgery'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.

Upcoming Earnings Estimate

Apollo Endosurgery reported Q2 earnings per share at $-0.22/share, which did not meet analyst predictions of $-0.2/share.