Calculate the cash return on assets (Cash ROA), a profitability ratio that measures how efficiently a company uses its assets to generate operating cash flow.

Unlike the return on assets, which uses accrual-based net income, the cash return on assets uses operating cash flow, making it less sensitive to non-cash accounting choices (e.g. depreciation method, revenue recognition timing, working capital accruals). Comparing cash ROA to ROA is a useful earnings-quality cross-check: a cash ROA that persistently trails ROA can indicate that reported profits are not being converted into cash.

The formula is as follows:

\[\text{Cash Return on Assets} = \text{Cash Flow from Operations} / \text{Average Total Assets}\]

Also known as: cash ROA.

No programming experience? With the Finance Toolkit MCP server, AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT can calculate the Cash Return on Assets (CRoA) for you. Just ask in plain English.

Calculate the Cash Return on Assets (CRoA) in Python

The Cash Return on Assets (CRoA) is available in the Ratios module of the open-source Finance Toolkit. Install it with:

pip install financetoolkit -U

Then call get_cash_return_on_assets as shown below.

from financetoolkit import Toolkit

toolkit = Toolkit(["AAPL", "TSLA"], api_key="FINANCIAL_MODELING_PREP_KEY")

cash_roa_ratios = toolkit.ratios.get_cash_return_on_assets()

Parameters

get_cash_return_on_assets accepts the following parameters:

  • rounding (int, optional): The number of decimals to round the results to. Defaults to 4.
  • growth (bool, optional): Whether to calculate the growth of the ratios. Defaults to False.
  • lag (int | str, optional): The lag to use for the growth calculation. Defaults to 1.
  • standardize (bool, optional): Whether to standardize (Z-Score) the result. When combined with growth=True, standardizes the growth values instead of the raw values. Defaults to False.
  • trailing (int): Defines whether to select a trailing period. E.g. when selecting 4 with quarterly data, the TTM is calculated.
Income Quality Ratio Return on Tangible Assets (RoTA) Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) Net Income per EBT Free Cash Flow Operating Cash Flow Ratio Tax Burden Ratio EBT to EBIT EBIT to Revenue Cash Tax Rate Tax Rate Divergence EBITDA Margin Free Cash Flow Margin

The Ratios module page introduces the module, and the sidebar lists all of its functions.

Share