Skip to main content
return on invested capital

return on invested capital

5.3
A percent showing how well a company makes profit from the money put into it
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : retorno sobre el capital invertido
  • "From 1980 to 2000, we had made only a 6 percent pretax return on invested capital," Griffith said.

Examples

  • You also want to look at a metric called Return on Invested Capital, or ROIC.

  • Comparing Mr. White's total compensation with Abbott's return on invested capital, we see a 13% negative correlation between the two sets of figures.

    Blog text (11)
  • Beyond that... this network may be the most significant profit center... of the communications complex... and based upon the projected rate of return on invested capital... and if merger is accomplished, the communications complex... may well become the towering and most profitable center... in the entire CCA empire.

  • The company's return on invested capital, which measures profitability from its total capital, has increased significantly this year.

  • Investors often assess the return on invested capital to determine how well a company is generating profits from its investments.

  • A higher return on invested capital indicates that a company is using its capital more effectively to generate profits.

Antonyms

695 2.1

Money lost by a business or person

How High

return on invested capital
  • Specialized
5.3
rate of return
  • Specialized
14 4.8

Surface Forms

Morphology

return + on + invest + capital

The phrase is directly compositional: 'return' = monetary yield, 'on' indicates relation/ratio, and 'invested capital' = capital that has been invested, so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it refers to profit generated by invested funds. While the precise accounting formula is technical, the basic meaning follows normal compositional patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent.

Etymology

Return on invested capital comes from the simple image of planting seeds: capital is the money you put into a business (like seeds), invested means you place it there, and return is the harvest you get back. So it tells you 'how much profit you get back' from the money you put in.