Financial return

Return on capital (ROC), or return on invested capital (ROIC), is a ratio used in finance, valuation and accounting, as a measure of the profitability and value-creating potential of companies after taking into account the amount of initial capital invested. The ratio is calculated by dividing the after-tax operating income (NOPAT) by the book value of both debt and equity capital less cash/equivalents.

There are four main components of this measurement that are worth noting. While ratios such as return on equity and return on assets use net income as the numerator, ROIC uses operating income. Second, this operating income is adjusted to reflect an effective or marginal tax rate. Third, while many financial computations use market value instead of book value (for instance, calculating debt-to-equity ratios or calculating the weights for the weighted average cost of capital (WACC)), ROIC uses book values of capital as the denominator. This procedure is done because, unlike market values which reflect future expectations in efficient markets, book values more closely reflect the amount of initial capital invested to generate a return. Lastly, because ROIC attempts to measure how well a firm is able to generate an operating return per unit of invested capital, the ratio is often calculated using the invested capital during a given year, rather than the average of invested capital; however, some analysts still prefer to use the latter.

Some practitioners make an additional adjustment to the formula to add depreciation, amortization, and depletion charges back to the numerator. Since these charges are considered "non-cash expenses" which are often included as part of operating expenses, the practice of adding these back is said to more closely reflect the cash return of a firm over a given period of time. However, others may argue that these non-cash charges should remain left out of the formula as they reflect the decline in the useful life of certain assets in the denominator.

The invested capital calculation measures the amount of initial capital invested by an enterprise used to generate a return for its capital providers (debt and equity investors). An equivalent way of calculating this amount is by subtracting current liabilities, non-operating assets, and cash and equivalents from a firm's total assets.

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