Obalon Therapeutics (NASDAQ:OBLN) reported Q3 sales of $44.00 thousand. Earnings fell to a loss of $1.56 million, resulting in a 62.5% decrease from last quarter. In Q2, Obalon Therapeutics brought in $703.00 thousand in sales but lost $4.16 million in earnings.
Return on Capital Employed is a measure of yearly pre-tax profit relative to capital employed by a business. Changes in earnings and sales indicate shifts in a company's ROCE. A higher ROCE is generally representative of successful growth of a company and is a sign of higher earnings per share in the future. A low or negative ROCE suggests the opposite. In Q3, Obalon Therapeutics posted an ROCE of -0.26%.
Keep in mind, while ROCE is a good measure of a company's recent performance, it is not a highly reliable predictor of a company's earnings or sales in the near future.
ROCE is an important metric for the comparison of similar companies. A relatively high ROCE shows Obalon Therapeutics is potentially operating at a higher level of efficiency than other companies in its industry. If the company is generating high profits with its current level of capital, some of that money can be reinvested in more capital which will generally lead to higher returns and earnings per share growth.
In Obalon Therapeutics's case, the ROCE ratio shows the amount of assets may not be helping the company achieve higher returns. Investors may take this into account before making any long-term financial decisions.
Obalon Therapeutics reported Q3 earnings per share at $-0.2/share, which did not meet analyst predictions of $-0.07/share.
Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.