We're Not So Sure You Should Rely on Tan Chong International's (HKG:693) Statutory Earnings

Broadly speaking, profitable businesses are less risky than unprofitable ones. Having said that, sometimes statutory profit levels are not a good guide to ongoing profitability, because some short term one-off factor has impacted profit levels. Today we'll focus on whether this year's statutory profits are a good guide to understanding Tan Chong International (HKG:693).

While Tan Chong International was able to generate revenue of HK$13.4b in the last twelve months, we think its profit result of HK$40.5m was more important. Below, you can see that both its revenue and its profit have fallen over the last three years.

View our latest analysis for Tan Chong International

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 discuss how unusual items have impacted Tan Chong International's most recent profit results. Note: we always recommend investors check balance sheet strength. Click here to be taken to our balance sheet analysis of Tan Chong International.

The Impact Of Unusual Items On Profit

Importantly, our data indicates that Tan Chong International's profit received a boost of HK$160m in unusual items, over the last year. While we like to see profit increases, we tend to be a little more cautious when unusual items have made a big contribution. 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, after all, that's exactly what the accounting terminology implies. Tan Chong International had a rather significant contribution from unusual items relative to its profit to June 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 Tan Chong International's Profit Performance

As we discussed above, we think the significant positive unusual item makes Tan Chong International'searnings a poor guide to its underlying profitability. For this reason, we think that Tan Chong International's statutory profits may be a bad guide to its underlying earnings power, and might give investors an overly positive impression of the company. Sadly, its EPS was down over the last twelve months. At the end of the day, it's essential to consider more than just the factors above, if you want to understand the company properly. With this in mind, we wouldn't consider investing in a stock unless we had a thorough understanding of the risks. Case in point: We've spotted 4 warning signs for Tan Chong International you should be mindful of and 1 of these bad boys is potentially serious.

This note has only looked at a single factor that sheds light on the nature of Tan Chong International's profit. But there are plenty of other ways to inform your opinion of a company. 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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