Bahnhof's (NGM:BAHN B) Earnings Are Growing But Is There More To The Story?

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 Bahnhof (NGM:BAHN B).

It's good to see that over the last twelve months Bahnhof made a profit of kr129.0m on revenue of kr1.42b. In the chart below, you can see that its profit and revenue have both grown over the last three years.

See our latest analysis for Bahnhof

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. As a result, we think it's well worth considering what Bahnhof's cashflow (when compared to its earnings) can tell us about the nature of its statutory profit. Note: we always recommend investors check balance sheet strength. Click here to be taken to our balance sheet analysis of Bahnhof.

Examining Cashflow Against Bahnhof's Earnings

As finance nerds would already know, the accrual ratio from cashflow is a key measure for assessing how well a company's free cash flow (FCF) matches its profit. The accrual ratio subtracts the FCF from the profit for a given period, and divides the result by the average operating assets of the company over that time. You could think of the accrual ratio from cashflow as the 'non-FCF profit ratio'.

That means a negative accrual ratio is a good thing, because it shows that the company is bringing in more free cash flow than its profit would suggest. While having an accrual ratio above zero is of little concern, we do think it's worth noting when a company has a relatively high accrual ratio. To quote a 2014 paper by Lewellen and Resutek, "firms with higher accruals tend to be less profitable in the future".

For the year to September 2020, Bahnhof had an accrual ratio of 0.58. Ergo, its free cash flow is significantly weaker than its profit. Statistically speaking, that's a real negative for future earnings. To wit, it produced free cash flow of kr96m during the period, falling well short of its reported profit of kr129.0m. We note, however, that Bahnhof grew its free cash flow over the last year.

Our Take On Bahnhof's Profit Performance

As we discussed above, we think Bahnhof's earnings were not supported by free cash flow, which might concern some investors. For this reason, we think that Bahnhof's statutory profits may be a bad guide to its underlying earnings power, and might give investors an overly positive impression of the company. Nonetheless, it's still worth noting that its earnings per share have grown at 59% over the last three years. 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. For example, we've discovered 1 warning sign that you should run your eye over to get a better picture of Bahnhof.

Today we've zoomed in on a single data point to better understand the nature of Bahnhof'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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