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For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. But as Peter Lynch said in One Up On Wall Street, 'Long shots almost never pay off.' Loss-making companies are always racing against time to reach financial sustainability, so investors in these companies may be taking on more risk than they should.
Despite being in the age of tech-stock blue-sky investing, many investors still adopt a more traditional strategy; buying shares in profitable companies like SFC Energy (ETR:F3C). Now this is not to say that the company presents the best investment opportunity around, but profitability is a key component to success in business.
See our latest analysis for SFC Energy
SFC Energy's Improving Profits
Strong earnings per share (EPS) results are an indicator of a company achieving solid profits, which investors look upon favourably and so the share price tends to reflect great EPS performance. Which is why EPS growth is looked upon so favourably. It's an outstanding feat for SFC Energy to have grown EPS from €0.068 to €1.21 in just one year. While it's difficult to sustain growth at that level, it bodes well for the company's outlook for the future. Could this be a sign that the business has reached an inflection point?
Top-line growth is a great indicator that growth is sustainable, and combined with a high earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margin, it's a great way for a company to maintain a competitive advantage in the market. The good news is that SFC Energy is growing revenues, and EBIT margins improved by 4.9 percentage points to 8.7%, over the last year. Ticking those two boxes is a good sign of growth, in our book.
You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.
While we live in the present moment, there's little doubt that the future matters most in the investment decision process. So why not check this interactive chart depicting future EPS estimates, for SFC Energy?
Are SFC Energy Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?
As a general rule, it's worth considering how much the CEO is paid, since unreasonably high rates could be considered against the interests of shareholders. Our analysis has discovered that the median total compensation for the CEOs of companies like SFC Energy with market caps between €186m and €745m is about €950k.
SFC Energy offered total compensation worth €633k to its CEO in the year to December 2023. That seems pretty reasonable, especially given it's below the median for similar sized companies. CEO compensation is hardly the most important aspect of a company to consider, but when it's reasonable, that gives a little more confidence that leadership are looking out for shareholder interests. It can also be a sign of good governance, more generally.