Returns On Capital Tell Us A Lot About American Shared Hospital Services (NYSEMKT:AMS)

If you're looking at a mature business that's past the growth phase, what are some of the underlying trends that pop up? When we see a declining return on capital employed (ROCE) in conjunction with a declining base of capital employed, that's often how a mature business shows signs of aging. This combination can tell you that not only is the company investing less, it's earning less on what it does invest. So after glancing at the trends within American Shared Hospital Services (NYSEMKT:AMS), we weren't too hopeful.

What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. To calculate this metric for American Shared Hospital Services, this is the formula:

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

0.014 = US$627k ÷ (US$52m - US$8.0m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2020).

So, American Shared Hospital Services has an ROCE of 1.4%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Healthcare industry average of 10%.

See our latest analysis for American Shared Hospital Services

roce

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you want to delve into the historical earnings, revenue and cash flow of American Shared Hospital Services, check out these free graphs here.

So How Is American Shared Hospital Services' ROCE Trending?

We are a bit worried about the trend of returns on capital at American Shared Hospital Services. To be more specific, the ROCE was 6.1% five years ago, but since then it has dropped noticeably. Meanwhile, capital employed in the business has stayed roughly the flat over the period. Companies that exhibit these attributes tend to not be shrinking, but they can be mature and facing pressure on their margins from competition. If these trends continue, we wouldn't expect American Shared Hospital Services to turn into a multi-bagger.

In Conclusion...

All in all, the lower returns from the same amount of capital employed aren't exactly signs of a compounding machine. Investors must expect better things on the horizon though because the stock has risen 22% in the last five years. Regardless, we don't like the trends as they are and if they persist, we think you might find better investments elsewhere.

On a separate note, we've found 1 warning sign for American Shared Hospital Services you'll probably want to know about.

While American Shared Hospital Services isn't earning the highest return, check out this free list of companies that are earning high returns on equity with solid balance sheets.

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