The market shrugged off Bozhon Precision Industry Technology Co.,Ltd.'s (SHSE:688097) weak earnings report. While shares were up, we believe there are some factors in the earnings report that might cause investors some concerns.

A Closer Look At Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd's Earnings

In high finance, the key ratio used to measure how well a company converts reported profits into free cash flow (FCF) is the accrual ratio (from cashflow). To get the accrual ratio we first subtract FCF from profit for a period, and then divide that number by the average operating assets for the period. The ratio shows us how much a company's profit exceeds its FCF.

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. Notably, there is some academic evidence that suggests that a high accrual ratio is a bad sign for near-term profits, generally speaking.

Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd has an accrual ratio of 0.21 for the year to March 2024. Therefore, we know that it's free cashflow was significantly lower than its statutory profit, which is hardly a good thing. Over the last year it actually had negative free cash flow of CN¥648m, in contrast to the aforementioned profit of CN¥317.0m. We also note that Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd's free cash flow was actually negative last year as well, so we could understand if shareholders were bothered by its outflow of CN¥648m. However, that's not all there is to consider. The accrual ratio is reflecting the impact of unusual items on statutory profit, at least in part.

That might leave you wondering what analysts are forecasting in terms of future profitability. Luckily, you can click here to see an interactive graph depicting future profitability, based on their estimates.

How Do Unusual Items Influence Profit?

The fact that the company had unusual items boosting profit by CN¥96m, in the last year, probably goes some way to explain why its accrual ratio was so weak. We can't deny that higher profits generally leave us optimistic, but we'd prefer it if the profit were to be sustainable. 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 Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd's positive unusual items were quite significant relative to its profit in the year to March 2024. As a result, we can surmise that the unusual items are making its statutory profit significantly stronger than it would otherwise be.

Our Take On Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd's Profit Performance

Summing up, Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd received a nice boost to profit from unusual items, but could not match its paper profit with free cash flow. For the reasons mentioned above, we think that a perfunctory glance at Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd's statutory profits might make it look better than it really is on an underlying level. If you want to do dive deeper into Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd, you'd also look into what risks it is currently facing. At Simply Wall St, we found 1 warning sign for Bozhon Precision Industry TechnologyLtd and we think they deserve your attention.

In this article we've looked at a number of factors that can impair the utility of profit numbers, and we've come away cautious. But there is always more to discover if you are capable of focussing your mind on minutiae. 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. 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.