China Molybdenum (HKG:3993) Is Growing Earnings But Are They A Good Guide?

Broadly speaking, profitable businesses are less risky than unprofitable ones. 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 China Molybdenum (HKG:3993).

We like the fact that China Molybdenum made a profit of CN¥2.22b on its revenue of CN¥115.6b, in the last year. At the risk of seeming quaint, we do like to at least examine profit, even when a stock is improving revenue and considered a 'growth stock'. 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 China Molybdenum

Importantly, statutory profits are not always the best tool for understanding a company's true earnings power, so it's well worth examining profits in a little more detail. This article will discuss how unusual items have impacted China Molybdenum's most recent profit results. 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.

The Impact Of Unusual Items On Profit

To properly understand China Molybdenum's profit results, we need to consider the CN¥1.4b gain attributed to unusual items. While it's always nice to have higher profit, a large contribution from unusual items sometimes dampens our enthusiasm. 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. And, after all, that's exactly what the accounting terminology implies. China Molybdenum had a rather significant contribution from unusual items relative to its profit to September 2020. All else being equal, this would likely have the effect of making the statutory profit a poor guide to underlying earnings power.

Our Take On China Molybdenum's Profit Performance

As we discussed above, we think the significant positive unusual item makes China Molybdenum'searnings a poor guide to its underlying profitability. For this reason, we think that China Molybdenum's statutory profits may be a bad guide to its underlying earnings power, and might give investors an overly positive impression of the company. But at least holders can take some solace from the 27% EPS growth in the last year. 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. So while earnings quality is important, it's equally important to consider the risks facing China Molybdenum at this point in time. Our analysis shows 4 warning signs for China Molybdenum (1 is a bit concerning!) and we strongly recommend you look at these bad boys before investing.

This note has only looked at a single factor that sheds light on the nature of China Molybdenum's profit. 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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