Capital Allocation Trends At Seiko Epson (TSE:6724) Aren't Ideal

What are the early trends we should look for to identify a stock that could multiply in value over the long term? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. If you see this, it typically means it's a company with a great business model and plenty of profitable reinvestment opportunities. Although, when we looked at Seiko Epson (TSE:6724), it didn't seem to tick all of these boxes.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Seiko Epson:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.064 = JP¥64b ÷ (JP¥1.4t - JP¥354b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2023).

Therefore, Seiko Epson has an ROCE of 6.4%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Tech industry average of 8.7%.

View our latest analysis for Seiko Epson

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Seiko Epson compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for Seiko Epson .

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

In terms of Seiko Epson's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 11% over the last five years. On the other hand, the company has been employing more capital without a corresponding improvement in sales in the last year, which could suggest these investments are longer term plays. It's worth keeping an eye on the company's earnings from here on to see if these investments do end up contributing to the bottom line.

The Bottom Line On Seiko Epson's ROCE

To conclude, we've found that Seiko Epson is reinvesting in the business, but returns have been falling. Although the market must be expecting these trends to improve because the stock has gained 83% over the last five years. However, unless these underlying trends turn more positive, we wouldn't get our hopes up too high.

On a final note, we've found 2 warning signs for Seiko Epson that we think you should be aware of.

If you want to search for solid companies with great earnings, check out this free list of companies with good balance sheets and impressive returns on equity.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.