Hotel Properties Limited (SGX:H15) announced strong profits, but the stock was stagnant. We did some digging, and we found some concerning factors in the details.

How Do Unusual Items Influence Profit?

Importantly, our data indicates that Hotel Properties' profit received a boost of S$648m in unusual items, over the last year. While we like to see profit increases, we tend to be a little more cautious when unusual items have made a big contribution. When we crunched the numbers on thousands of publicly listed companies, we found that a boost from unusual items in a given year is often not repeated the next year. And that's as you'd expect, given these boosts are described as 'unusual'. We can see that Hotel Properties' positive unusual items were quite significant relative to its profit in the year to December 2023. As a result, we can surmise that the unusual items are making its statutory profit significantly stronger than it would otherwise be.

Note: we always recommend investors check balance sheet strength. Click here to be taken to our balance sheet analysis of Hotel Properties.

Our Take On Hotel Properties' Profit Performance

As previously mentioned, Hotel Properties' large boost from unusual items won't be there indefinitely, so its statutory earnings are probably a poor guide to its underlying profitability. As a result, we think it may well be the case that Hotel Properties' underlying earnings power is lower than its statutory profit. But the happy news is that, while acknowledging we have to look beyond the statutory numbers, those numbers are still improving, with EPS growing at a very high rate over the last year. 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. With this in mind, we wouldn't consider investing in a stock unless we had a thorough understanding of the risks. Case in point: We've spotted 2 warning signs for Hotel Properties you should be mindful of and 1 of them is concerning.

Today we've zoomed in on a single data point to better understand the nature of Hotel Properties' 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. While it might take a little research on your behalf, you may find this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying to be useful.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. 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.