To avoid investing in a business that's in decline, there's a few financial metrics that can provide early indications of aging. When we see a declining return on capital employed (ROCE) in conjunction with a declining base of capital employed, that's often how a mature business shows signs of aging. Basically the company is earning less on its investments and it is also reducing its total assets. And from a first read, things don't look too good at Fresenius Medical Care (ETR:FME), so let's see why.

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Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. To calculate this metric for Fresenius Medical Care, this is the formula:

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

0.055 = €1.5b ÷ (€34b - €5.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

Therefore, Fresenius Medical Care has an ROCE of 5.5%. In absolute terms, that's a low return but it's around the Healthcare industry average of 5.2%.

See our latest analysis for Fresenius Medical Care

In the above chart we have measured Fresenius Medical Care's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free analyst report for Fresenius Medical Care .

The Trend Of ROCE

In terms of Fresenius Medical Care's historical ROCE movements, the trend doesn't inspire confidence. Unfortunately the returns on capital have diminished from the 8.8% that they were earning five years ago. And on the capital employed front, the business is utilizing roughly the same amount of capital as it was back then. Companies that exhibit these attributes tend to not be shrinking, but they can be mature and facing pressure on their margins from competition. If these trends continue, we wouldn't expect Fresenius Medical Care to turn into a multi-bagger.

What We Can Learn From Fresenius Medical Care's ROCE

All in all, the lower returns from the same amount of capital employed aren't exactly signs of a compounding machine. Investors haven't taken kindly to these developments, since the stock has declined 33% from where it was five years ago. That being the case, unless the underlying trends revert to a more positive trajectory, we'd consider looking elsewhere.

Fresenius Medical Care could be trading at an attractive price in other respects, so you might find our free intrinsic value estimation for FME 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.