We're Not Counting On SF Urban Properties (VTX:SFPN) To Sustain Its Statutory Profitability

Many investors consider it preferable to invest in profitable companies over unprofitable ones, because profitability suggests a business is sustainable. That said, the current statutory profit is not always a good guide to a company's underlying profitability. In this article, we'll look at how useful this year's statutory profit is, when analysing SF Urban Properties (VTX:SFPN).

While SF Urban Properties was able to generate revenue of CHF26.8m in the last twelve months, we think its profit result of CHF14.9m was more important. While it managed to grow its revenue over the last three years, its profit has moved in the other direction, as you can see in the chart below.

View our latest analysis for SF Urban Properties

Of course, when it comes to statutory profit, the devil is often in the detail, and we can get a better sense for a company by diving deeper into the financial statements. This article will focus on the impact unusual items have had on SF Urban Properties' statutory earnings. 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.

How Do Unusual Items Influence Profit?

Importantly, our data indicates that SF Urban Properties' profit received a boost of CHF7.6m in unusual items, over the last year. We can't deny that higher profits generally leave us optimistic, but we'd prefer it if the profit were to be sustainable. We ran the numbers on most publicly listed companies worldwide, and it's very common for unusual items to be once-off in nature. And that's as you'd expect, given these boosts are described as 'unusual'. We can see that SF Urban Properties' positive unusual items were quite significant relative to its profit in the year to June 2020. As a result, we can surmise that the unusual items are making its statutory profit significantly stronger than it would otherwise be.

Our Take On SF Urban Properties' Profit Performance

As we discussed above, we think the significant positive unusual item makes SF Urban Properties'earnings a poor guide to its underlying profitability. For this reason, we think that SF Urban Properties' statutory profits may be a bad guide to its underlying earnings power, and might give investors an overly positive impression of the company. And we are pleased to note that EPS is at least heading in the right direction in the alst twelve months. The goal of this article has been to assess how well we can rely on the statutory earnings to reflect the company's potential, but there is plenty more to consider. If you want to do dive deeper into SF Urban Properties, you'd also look into what risks it is currently facing. For example, SF Urban Properties has 4 warning signs (and 2 which don't sit too well with us) we think you should know about.

Today we've zoomed in on a single data point to better understand the nature of SF Urban Properties' profit. But there is always more to discover if you are capable of focussing your mind on minutiae. For example, many people consider a high return on equity as an indication of favorable business economics, while others like to 'follow the money' and search out stocks that insiders are buying. 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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