Concerns Surrounding Pirelli & C's (BIT:PIRC) Performance

The market shrugged off Pirelli & C. S.p.A.'s (BIT:PIRC) solid earnings report. Our analysis showed that there are some concerning factors in the earnings that investors may be cautious of.

See our latest analysis for Pirelli & C

How Do Unusual Items Influence Profit?

For anyone who wants to understand Pirelli & C's profit beyond the statutory numbers, it's important to note that during the last twelve months statutory profit gained from €100m worth of unusual items. 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. And that's as you'd expect, given these boosts are described as 'unusual'. If Pirelli & C doesn't see that contribution repeat, then all else being equal we'd expect its profit to drop over the current year.

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.

Our Take On Pirelli & C's Profit Performance

We'd posit that Pirelli & C's statutory earnings aren't a clean read on ongoing productivity, due to the large unusual item. Therefore, it seems possible to us that Pirelli & C's true underlying earnings power is actually less than its statutory profit. But the good news is that its EPS growth over the last three years has been very impressive. 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. In light of this, if you'd like to do more analysis on the company, it's vital to be informed of the risks involved. You'd be interested to know, that we found 1 warning sign for Pirelli & C and you'll want to know about it.

Today we've zoomed in on a single data point to better understand the nature of Pirelli & C'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. 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.