Finding a business that has the potential to grow substantially is not easy, but it is possible if we look at a few key financial metrics. Amongst other things, we'll want to see two things; firstly, a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an expansion in the company's amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. Speaking of which, we noticed some great changes in LivaNova's (NASDAQ:LIVN) returns on capital, so let's have a look.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

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 LivaNova:

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

0.06 = US$128m ÷ (US$2.5b - US$303m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

Thus, LivaNova has an ROCE of 6.0%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Medical Equipment industry average of 9.6%.

Above you can see how the current ROCE for LivaNova 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 LivaNova .

What Can We Tell From LivaNova's ROCE Trend?

LivaNova is showing promise given that its ROCE is trending up and to the right. The figures show that over the last five years, ROCE has grown 108% whilst employing roughly the same amount of capital. So it's likely that the business is now reaping the full benefits of its past investments, since the capital employed hasn't changed considerably. It's worth looking deeper into this though because while it's great that the business is more efficient, it might also mean that going forward the areas to invest internally for the organic growth are lacking.

On a related note, the company's ratio of current liabilities to total assets has decreased to 12%, which basically reduces it's funding from the likes of short-term creditors or suppliers. Therefore we can rest assured that the growth in ROCE is a result of the business' fundamental improvements, rather than a cooking class featuring this company's books.

In Conclusion...

In summary, we're delighted to see that LivaNova has been able to increase efficiencies and earn higher rates of return on the same amount of capital. Astute investors may have an opportunity here because the stock has declined 33% in the last five years. That being the case, research into the company's current valuation metrics and future prospects seems fitting.

Before jumping to any conclusions though, we need to know what value we're getting for the current share price. That's where you can check out our FREE intrinsic value estimation for LIVN that compares the share price and estimated value.

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.

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