Is There More To The Story Than Northland Power's (TSE:NPI) Earnings Growth?

It might be old fashioned, but we really like to invest in companies that make a profit, each and every year. That said, the current statutory profit is not always a good guide to a company's underlying profitability. Today we'll focus on whether this year's statutory profits are a good guide to understanding Northland Power (TSE:NPI).

While Northland Power was able to generate revenue of CA$2.01b in the last twelve months, we think its profit result of CA$370.7m was more important. Happily, it has grown both its profit and revenue over the last three years, as you can see in the chart below.

View our latest analysis for Northland Power

Not all profits are equal, and we can learn more about the nature of a company's past profitability by diving deeper into the financial statements. Therefore, today we will consider the nature of Northland Power's statutory earnings with reference to its dilution of shareholders and the impact of unusual items. That might leave you wondering what analysts are forecasting in terms of future profitability. Luckily, you can click here to see an interactive graph depicting future profitability, based on their estimates.

One essential aspect of assessing earnings quality is to look at how much a company is diluting shareholders. Northland Power expanded the number of shares on issue by 12% over the last year. Therefore, each share now receives a smaller portion of profit. To talk about net income, without noticing earnings per share, is to be distracted by the big numbers while ignoring the smaller numbers that talk to per share value. You can see a chart of Northland Power's EPS by clicking here.

How Is Dilution Impacting Northland Power's Earnings Per Share? (EPS)

Northland Power has improved its profit over the last three years, with an annualized gain of 39% in that time. But EPS was only up 26% per year, in the exact same period. And the 21% profit boost in the last year certainly seems impressive at first glance. On the other hand, earnings per share are only up 12% in that time. So you can see that the dilution has had a bit of an impact on shareholders. Therefore, the dilution is having a noteworthy influence on shareholder returns. And so, you can see quite clearly that dilution is influencing shareholder earnings.

In the long term, earnings per share growth should beget share price growth. So it will certainly be a positive for shareholders if Northland Power can grow EPS persistently. However, if its profit increases while its earnings per share stay flat (or even fall) then shareholders might not see much benefit. For the ordinary retail shareholder, EPS is a great measure to check your hypothetical "share" of the company's profit.

The Impact Of Unusual Items On Profit

On top of the dilution, we should also consider the CA$106m impact of unusual items in the last year, which had the effect of suppressing profit. While deductions due to unusual items are disappointing in the first instance, there is a silver lining. We looked at thousands of listed companies and found that unusual items are very often one-off in nature. And, after all, that's exactly what the accounting terminology implies. Assuming those unusual expenses don't come up again, we'd therefore expect Northland Power to produce a higher profit next year, all else being equal.

Our Take On Northland Power's Profit Performance

To sum it all up, Northland Power took a hit from unusual items which pushed its profit down; without that, it would have made more money. But unfortunately the dilution means that shareholders now own a smaller proportion of the company (assuming they maintained the same number of shares). That will weigh on earnings per share, even if it is not reflected in net income. Based on these factors, it's hard to tell if Northland Power's profits are a reasonable reflection of its underlying profitability. With this in mind, we wouldn't consider investing in a stock unless we had a thorough understanding of the risks. Our analysis shows 5 warning signs for Northland Power (2 are concerning!) and we strongly recommend you look at them before investing.

In this article we've looked at a number of factors that can impair the utility of profit numbers, as a guide to a business. But there is always more to discover if you are capable of focussing your mind on minutiae. Some people consider a high return on equity to be a good sign of a quality business. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. 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.
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