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.' While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else investors will move on and the company will wither away.

In contrast to all that, many investors prefer to focus on companies like Filtronic (LON:FTC), which has not only revenues, but also profits. 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.

View our latest analysis for Filtronic

How Fast Is Filtronic Growing Its Earnings Per Share?

In business, profits are a key measure of success; and share prices tend to reflect earnings per share (EPS) performance. So a growing EPS generally brings attention to a company in the eyes of prospective investors. It's an outstanding feat for Filtronic to have grown EPS from UK￡0.0022 to UK￡0.014 in just one year. When you see earnings grow that quickly, it often means good things ahead for the company. Could this be a sign that the business has reached an inflection point?

It's often helpful to take a look at earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. The music to the ears of Filtronic shareholders is that EBIT margins have grown from 1.5% to 14% in the last 12 months and revenues are on an upwards trend as well. Both of which are great metrics to check off for potential growth.

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.

Since Filtronic is no giant, with a market capitalisation of UK￡142m, you should definitely check its cash and debt before getting too excited about its prospects.

Are Filtronic Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

It's pleasing to see company leaders with putting their money on the line, so to speak, because it increases alignment of incentives between the people running the business, and its true owners. Shareholders will be pleased by the fact that insiders own Filtronic shares worth a considerable sum. With a whopping UK￡41m worth of shares as a group, insiders have plenty riding on the company's success. That holding amounts to 29% of the stock on issue, thus making insiders influential owners of the business and aligned with the interests of shareholders.