Transocean's (NYSE:RIG) Returns On Capital Are Heading Higher

Yahoo

07-05-2025

If you're looking for a multi-bagger, there's a few things to keep an eye out for. Firstly, we'd want to identify a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and then alongside that, an ever-increasing base of capital employed. Ultimately, this demonstrates that it's a business that is reinvesting profits at increasing rates of return. With that in mind, we've noticed some promising trends at Transocean (NYSE:RIG) so let's look a bit deeper.
This technology could replace computers: discover the 20 stocks are working to make quantum computing a reality.
What Is 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. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for Transocean:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
0.026 = US$454m ÷ (US$19b - US$1.7b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to March 2025).
Therefore, Transocean has an ROCE of 2.6%. In absolute terms, that's a low return and it also under-performs the Energy Services industry average of 11%.
View our latest analysis for Transocean
NYSE:RIG Return on Capital Employed May 7th 2025
Above you can see how the current ROCE for Transocean compares to its prior returns on capital, but there's only so much you can tell from the past. If you'd like to see what analysts are forecasting going forward, you should check out our free analyst report for Transocean .
So How Is Transocean's ROCE Trending?
It's great to see that Transocean has started to generate some pre-tax earnings from prior investments. Historically the company was generating losses but as we can see from the latest figures referenced above, they're now earning 2.6% on their capital employed. At first glance, it seems the business is getting more proficient at generating returns, because over the same period, the amount of capital employed has reduced by 21%. Transocean could be selling under-performing assets since the ROCE is improving.
The Bottom Line On Transocean's ROCE
In the end, Transocean has proven it's capital allocation skills are good with those higher returns from less amount of capital. Considering the stock has delivered 40% to its stockholders over the last five years, it may be fair to think that investors aren't fully aware of the promising trends yet. So with that in mind, we think the stock deserves further research.
On a final note, we've found 1 warning sign for Transocean that we think you should be aware of.