Ignoring the stock price of a company, what are the underlying trends that tell us a business is past the growth phase? A business that's potentially in decline often shows two trends, a return on capital employed (ROCE) that's declining, and a base of capital employed that's also declining. Trends like this ultimately mean the business is reducing its investments and also earning less on what it has invested. Having said that, after a brief look, Xerox Holdings (NASDAQ:XRX) we aren't filled with optimism, but let's investigate further.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on Xerox Holdings is:

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

0.014 = US$79m ÷ (US$8.4b - US$2.6b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

Thus, Xerox Holdings has an ROCE of 1.4%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Tech industry average of 11%.

Check out our latest analysis for Xerox Holdings

Above you can see how the current ROCE for Xerox Holdings 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 Xerox Holdings .

The Trend Of ROCE

We are a bit anxious about the trends of ROCE at Xerox Holdings. Unfortunately, returns have declined substantially over the last five years to the 1.4% we see today. What's equally concerning is that the amount of capital deployed in the business has shrunk by 51% over that same period. 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.

The Key Takeaway

In short, lower returns and decreasing amounts capital employed in the business doesn't fill us with confidence. Investors haven't taken kindly to these developments, since the stock has declined 63% from where it was five years ago. With underlying trends that aren't great in these areas, we'd consider looking elsewhere.

On a final note, we found 2 warning signs for Xerox Holdings (1 is potentially serious) you should be aware of.

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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