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What underlying fundamental trends can indicate that a company might be in decline? Businesses in decline often have two underlying trends, firstly, a declining return on capital employed (ROCE) and a declining base of capital employed. This indicates to us that the business is not only shrinking the size of its net assets, but its returns are falling as well. So after we looked into iHeartMedia (NASDAQ:IHRT), the trends above didn't look too great.
Understanding 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for iHeartMedia:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.044 = US$351m ÷ (US$8.7b - US$758m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).
Therefore, iHeartMedia has an ROCE of 4.4%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Media industry average of 7.5%.
View our latest analysis for iHeartMedia
In the above chart we have measured iHeartMedia's 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 report for iHeartMedia.
The Trend Of ROCE
The trend of ROCE at iHeartMedia is showing some signs of weakness. Unfortunately, returns have declined substantially over the last five years to the 4.4% we see today. On top of that, the business is utilizing 24% less capital within its operations. The fact that both are shrinking is an indication that the business is going through some tough times. Typically businesses that exhibit these characteristics aren't the ones that tend to multiply over the long term, because statistically speaking, they've already gone through the growth phase of their life cycle.
Our Take On iHeartMedia's ROCE
In short, lower returns and decreasing amounts capital employed in the business doesn't fill us with confidence. It should come as no surprise then that the stock has fallen 45% over the last three years, so it looks like investors are recognizing these changes. That being the case, unless the underlying trends revert to a more positive trajectory, we'd consider looking elsewhere.
One final note, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with iHeartMedia (including 1 which doesn't sit too well with us) .
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.