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. In a perfect world, we'd like to see a company investing more capital into its business and ideally the returns earned from that capital are also increasing. Put simply, these types of businesses are compounding machines, meaning they are continually reinvesting their earnings at ever-higher rates of return. With that in mind, the ROCE of Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA) looks decent, right now, so lets see what the trend of returns can tell us.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

For those that aren't sure what ROCE is, it measures the amount of pre-tax profits a company can generate from the capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Electronic Arts is:

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

0.14 = US$1.5b ÷ (US$13b - US$2.5b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2024).

Thus, Electronic Arts has an ROCE of 14%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Entertainment industry average of 11% it's much better.

View our latest analysis for Electronic Arts

In the above chart we have measured Electronic Arts' prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Electronic Arts .

So How Is Electronic Arts' ROCE Trending?

While the returns on capital are good, they haven't moved much. The company has consistently earned 14% for the last five years, and the capital employed within the business has risen 26% in that time. Since 14% is a moderate ROCE though, it's good to see a business can continue to reinvest at these decent rates of return. Over long periods of time, returns like these might not be too exciting, but with consistency they can pay off in terms of share price returns.

Our Take On Electronic Arts' ROCE

The main thing to remember is that Electronic Arts has proven its ability to continually reinvest at respectable rates of return. Therefore it's no surprise that shareholders have earned a respectable 55% return if they held over the last five years. So while investors seem to be recognizing these promising trends, we still believe the stock deserves further research.

Electronic Arts could be trading at an attractive price in other respects, so you might find our free intrinsic value estimation for EA on our platform quite valuable.

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.