Syngen Biotech's (GTSM:8279) Earnings Are Growing But Is There More To The Story?

As a general rule, we think profitable companies are less risky than companies that lose money. 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 Syngen Biotech (GTSM:8279).

While Syngen Biotech was able to generate revenue of NT$1.31b in the last twelve months, we think its profit result of NT$225.2m was more important. In the chart below, you can see that its profit and revenue have both grown over the last three years.

View our latest analysis for Syngen Biotech

Not all profits are equal, and we can learn more about the nature of a company's past profitability by diving deeper into the financial statements. Today, we'll discuss Syngen Biotech's free cashflow relative to its earnings, and consider what that tells us about the company. Note: we always recommend investors check balance sheet strength. Click here to be taken to our balance sheet analysis of Syngen Biotech.

Examining Cashflow Against Syngen Biotech'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. In plain english, this ratio subtracts FCF from net profit, and divides that number by the company's average operating assets over that period. You could think of the accrual ratio from cashflow as the 'non-FCF profit ratio'.

Therefore, it's actually considered a good thing when a company has a negative accrual ratio, but a bad thing if its accrual ratio is positive. While it's not a problem to have a positive accrual ratio, indicating a certain level of non-cash profits, a high accrual ratio is arguably a bad thing, because it indicates paper profits are not matched by cash flow. That's because some academic studies have suggested that high accruals ratios tend to lead to lower profit or less profit growth.

Over the twelve months to September 2020, Syngen Biotech recorded an accrual ratio of 0.32. Unfortunately, that means its free cash flow was a lot less than its statutory profit, which makes us doubt the utility of profit as a guide. Even though it reported a profit of NT$225.2m, a look at free cash flow indicates it actually burnt through NT$138m in the last year. We saw that FCF was NT$124m a year ago though, so Syngen Biotech has at least been able to generate positive FCF in the past.

Our Take On Syngen Biotech's Profit Performance

Syngen Biotech didn't convert much of its profit to free cash flow in the last year, which some investors may consider rather suboptimal. Because of this, we think that it may be that Syngen Biotech's statutory profits are better than its underlying earnings power. But at least holders can take some solace from the 33% per annum growth in EPS for the last three. 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. 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. To that end, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with Syngen Biotech (including 1 which is significant).

This note has only looked at a single factor that sheds light on the nature of Syngen Biotech'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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