The market shrugged off Yintai Gold Co., Ltd.'s (SZSE:000975) solid earnings report. We did some digging and believe investors may be worried about some underlying factors in the report.

Check out our latest analysis for Yintai Gold

How Do Unusual Items Influence Profit?

For anyone who wants to understand Yintai Gold's profit beyond the statutory numbers, it's important to note that during the last twelve months statutory profit gained from CN¥190m worth of unusual items. 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. Which is hardly surprising, given the name. Assuming those unusual items don't show up again in the current year, we'd thus expect profit to be weaker next year (in the absence of business growth, that is).

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.

Our Take On Yintai Gold's Profit Performance

We'd posit that Yintai Gold's statutory earnings aren't a clean read on ongoing productivity, due to the large unusual item. Therefore, it seems possible to us that Yintai Gold's true underlying earnings power is actually less than its statutory profit. But at least holders can take some solace from the 13% per annum growth in EPS for the last three. The goal of this article has been to assess how well we can rely on the statutory earnings to reflect the company's potential, but there is plenty more to consider. So while earnings quality is important, it's equally important to consider the risks facing Yintai Gold at this point in time. Every company has risks, and we've spotted 1 warning sign for Yintai Gold you should know about.

Today we've zoomed in on a single data point to better understand the nature of Yintai Gold's profit. But there are plenty of other ways to inform your opinion of a company. For example, many people consider a high return on equity as an indication of favorable business economics, while others like to 'follow the money' and search out stocks that insiders are buying. 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.