There May Be Underlying Issues With The Quality Of Lesico's (TLV:LSCO) Earnings

Despite announcing strong earnings, Lesico Ltd's (TLV:LSCO) stock was sluggish. We did some digging and found some worrying underlying problems.

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How Do Unusual Items Influence Profit?

Importantly, our data indicates that Lesico's profit received a boost of ₪2.9m 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 that's as you'd expect, given these boosts are described as 'unusual'. Assuming those unusual items don't show up again in the current year, we'd thus expect profit to be weaker next year (in the absence of business growth, that is).

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

Our Take On Lesico's Profit Performance

We'd posit that Lesico's statutory earnings aren't a clean read on ongoing productivity, due to the large unusual item. Therefore, it seems possible to us that Lesico's true underlying earnings power is actually less than its statutory profit. The silver lining is that its EPS growth over the last year has been really wonderful, even if it's not a perfect measure. 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. So if you'd like to dive deeper into this stock, it's crucial to consider any risks it's facing. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Lesico you should be aware of.

Today we've zoomed in on a single data point to better understand the nature of Lesico'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 with high insider ownership.

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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.