Shareholders In Swiss Steel Holding (VTX:STLN) Should Look Beyond Earnings For The Full Story

Even though Swiss Steel Holding AG (VTX:STLN) posted strong earnings recently, the stock hasn't reacted in a large way. We looked deeper into the numbers and found that shareholders might be concerned with some underlying weaknesses.

View our latest analysis for Swiss Steel Holding

A Closer Look At Swiss Steel Holding's Earnings

As finance nerds would already know, the accrual ratio from cashflow is a key measure for assessing how well a company's free cash flow (FCF) matches its profit. In plain english, this ratio subtracts FCF from net profit, and divides that number by the company's average operating assets over that period. The ratio shows us how much a company's profit exceeds its FCF.

Therefore, it's actually considered a good thing when a company has a negative accrual ratio, but a bad thing if its accrual ratio is positive. While it's not a problem to have a positive accrual ratio, indicating a certain level of non-cash profits, a high accrual ratio is arguably a bad thing, because it indicates paper profits are not matched by cash flow. That's because some academic studies have suggested that high accruals ratios tend to lead to lower profit or less profit growth.

Swiss Steel Holding has an accrual ratio of 0.30 for the year to December 2021. Therefore, we know that it's free cashflow was significantly lower than its statutory profit, raising questions about how useful that profit figure really is. Over the last year it actually had negative free cash flow of €227m, in contrast to the aforementioned profit of €50.1m. Coming off the back of negative free cash flow last year, we imagine some shareholders might wonder if its cash burn of €227m, this year, indicates high risk. However, that's not the end of the story. We can look at how unusual items in the profit and loss statement impacted its accrual ratio, as well as explore how dilution is impacting shareholders negatively. One positive for Swiss Steel Holding shareholders is that it's accrual ratio was significantly better last year, providing reason to believe that it may return to stronger cash conversion in the future. Shareholders should look for improved cashflow relative to profit in the current year, if that is indeed the case.

Note: we always recommend investors check balance sheet strength. Click here to be taken to our balance sheet analysis of Swiss Steel Holding.

In order to understand the potential for per share returns, it is essential to consider how much a company is diluting shareholders. As it happens, Swiss Steel Holding issued 51% more new shares over the last year. Therefore, each share now receives a smaller portion of profit. To celebrate net income while ignoring dilution is like rejoicing because you have a single slice of a larger pizza, but ignoring the fact that the pizza is now cut into many more slices. Check out Swiss Steel Holding's historical EPS growth by clicking on this link.

How Is Dilution Impacting Swiss Steel Holding's Earnings Per Share? (EPS)

Three years ago, Swiss Steel Holding lost money. And even focusing only on the last twelve months, we don't have a meaningful growth rate because it made a loss a year ago, too. But mathematics aside, it is always good to see when a formerly unprofitable business come good (though we accept profit would have been higher if dilution had not been required). And so, you can see quite clearly that dilution is having a rather significant impact on shareholders.

If Swiss Steel Holding's EPS can grow over time then that drastically improves the chances of the share price moving in the same direction. But on the other hand, we'd be far less excited to learn profit (but not EPS) was improving. For that reason, you could say that EPS is more important that net income in the long run, assuming the goal is to assess whether a company's share price might grow.

How Do Unusual Items Influence Profit?

The fact that the company had unusual items boosting profit by €18m, in the last year, probably goes some way to explain why its accrual ratio was so weak. While we like to see profit increases, we tend to be a little more cautious when unusual items have made a big contribution. When we crunched the numbers on thousands of publicly listed companies, we found that a boost from unusual items in a given year is often not repeated the next year. Which is hardly surprising, given the name. If Swiss Steel Holding doesn't see that contribution repeat, then all else being equal we'd expect its profit to drop over the current year.

Our Take On Swiss Steel Holding's Profit Performance

Swiss Steel Holding didn't back up its earnings with free cashflow, but this isn't too surprising given profits were inflated by unusual items. Meanwhile, the new shares issued mean that shareholders now own less of the company, unless they tipped in more cash themselves. On reflection, the above-mentioned factors give us the strong impression that Swiss Steel Holding'sunderlying earnings power is not as good as it might seem, based on the statutory profit numbers. So while earnings quality is important, it's equally important to consider the risks facing Swiss Steel Holding at this point in time. Be aware that Swiss Steel Holding is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis and 3 of those can't be ignored...

Our examination of Swiss Steel Holding has focussed on certain factors that can make its earnings look better than they are. And, on that basis, we are somewhat skeptical. 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. 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.