It's only natural that many investors, especially those who are new to the game, prefer to buy shares in 'sexy' stocks with a good story, even if those businesses lose money. But as Peter Lynch said in One Up On Wall Street, 'Long shots almost never pay off.'

So if you're like me, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like Pan-United (SGX:P52). While that doesn't make the shares worth buying at any price, you can't deny that successful capitalism requires profit, eventually. Conversely, a loss-making company is yet to prove itself with profit, and eventually the sweet milk of external capital may run sour.

View our latest analysis for Pan-United

How Fast Is Pan-United Growing?

If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price will eventually follow. Therefore, there are plenty of investors who like to buy shares in companies that are growing EPS. As a tree reaches steadily for the sky, Pan-United's EPS has grown 35% each year, compound, over three years. As a general rule, we'd say that if a company can keep up that sort of growth, shareholders will be smiling.

I like to see top-line growth as an indication that growth is sustainable, and I look for a high earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin to point to a competitive moat (though some companies with low margins also have moats). Pan-United's EBIT margins have actually improved by 2.6 percentage points in the last year, to reach 3.9%, but, on the flip side, revenue was down 11%. That's not ideal.

In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

Pan-United isn't a huge company, given its market capitalization of S$203m. That makes it extra important to check on its balance sheet strength.

Are Pan-United Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

Many consider high insider ownership to be a strong sign of alignment between the leaders of a company and the ordinary shareholders. So as you can imagine, the fact that Pan-United insiders own a significant number of shares certainly appeals to me. Indeed, with a collective holding of 72%, company insiders are in control and have plenty of capital behind the venture. This makes me think they will be incentivised to plan for the long term - something I like to see. With that sort of holding, insiders have about S$146m riding on the stock, at current prices. That's nothing to sneeze at!

Is Pan-United Worth Keeping An Eye On?

You can't deny that Pan-United has grown its earnings per share at a very impressive rate. That's attractive. Further, the high level of insider ownership impresses me, and suggests that I'm not the only one who appreciates the EPS growth. Fast growth and confident insiders should be enough to warrant further research. So the answer is that I do think this is a good stock to follow along with. Don't forget that there may still be risks. For instance, we've identified 4 warning signs for Pan-United (1 doesn't sit too well with us) you should be aware of.