Investors are often guided by the idea of discovering 'the next big thing', even if that means buying 'story stocks' without any revenue, let alone profit. But the reality is that when a company loses money each year, for long enough, its investors will usually take their share of those losses. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else investors will move on and the company will wither away.

In contrast to all that, many investors prefer to focus on companies like IDEXX Laboratories (NASDAQ:IDXX), which has not only revenues, but also profits. While profit isn't the sole metric that should be considered when investing, it's worth recognising businesses that can consistently produce it.

View our latest analysis for IDEXX Laboratories

How Fast Is IDEXX Laboratories Growing?

The market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine in the long term, so you'd expect share price to follow earnings per share (EPS) outcomes eventually. Therefore, there are plenty of investors who like to buy shares in companies that are growing EPS. We can see that in the last three years IDEXX Laboratories grew its EPS by 6.4% per year. While that sort of growth rate isn't anything to write home about, it does show the business is growing.

One way to double-check a company's growth is to look at how its revenue, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins are changing. IDEXX Laboratories maintained stable EBIT margins over the last year, all while growing revenue 7.7% to US$3.8b. That's encouraging news for the company!

You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. For finer detail, click on the image.

In investing, as in life, the future matters more than the past. So why not check out this free interactive visualization of IDEXX Laboratories' forecast profits?

Are IDEXX Laboratories Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

We would not expect to see insiders owning a large percentage of a US$42b company like IDEXX Laboratories. But we do take comfort from the fact that they are investors in the company. Indeed, they have a considerable amount of wealth invested in it, currently valued at US$410m. While that is a lot of skin in the game, we note this holding only totals to 1.0% of the business, which is a result of the company being so large. So despite their percentage holding being low, company management still have plenty of reasons to deliver the best outcomes for investors.