Benzinga | Jul 29, 2020 11:21AM EDT

Return On Capital Employed Overview: Juniper Networks

Juniper Networks (NYSE:JNPR) showed a loss in earnings since Q1, totaling $28.30 million. Sales, on the other hand, increased by 8.82% to $1.09 billion during Q2. In Q1, Juniper Networks earned $174.00 million and total sales reached $998.00 million.

What Is ROCE?

Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in Juniper Networks'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 Q2, Juniper Networks posted an ROCE of 0.02%.

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 Juniper Networks 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 lead to higher returns and earnings per share growth. In Juniper Networks's case, the positive ROCE ratio will be something investors pay attention to before making long-term financial decisions.

Q2 Earnings

Juniper Networks reported Q2 earnings per share at $0.35/share against analyst predictions of $0.34/share.