We Think You Should Be Aware Of Some Concerning Factors In Transense Technologies' (LON:TRT) Earnings
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The stock price didn't jump after Transense Technologies plc (LON:TRT) posted decent earnings last week. Our analysis showed that there are some concerning factors in the earnings that investors may be cautious of.
See our latest analysis for Transense Technologies
A Closer Look At Transense Technologies' Earnings
Many investors haven't heard of the accrual ratio from cashflow, but it is actually a useful measure of how well a company's profit is backed up by free cash flow (FCF) during a given period. The accrual ratio subtracts the FCF from the profit for a given period, and divides the result by the average operating assets of the company over that time. This ratio tells us how much of a company's profit is not backed by free cashflow.
That means a negative accrual ratio is a good thing, because it shows that the company is bringing in more free cash flow than its profit would suggest. That is not intended to imply we should worry about a positive accrual ratio, but it's worth noting where the accrual ratio is rather high. That's because some academic studies have suggested that high accruals ratios tend to lead to lower profit or less profit growth.
Over the twelve months to June 2024, Transense Technologies recorded an accrual ratio of 0.24. We can therefore deduce that its free cash flow fell well short of covering its statutory profit. To wit, it produced free cash flow of UK£680k during the period, falling well short of its reported profit of UK£1.57m. At this point we should mention that Transense Technologies did manage to increase its free cash flow in the last twelve months Importantly, we note an unusual tax situation, which we discuss below, has impacted the accruals ratio. This would partially explain why the accrual ratio was so poor.
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.
An Unusual Tax Situation
Moving on from the accrual ratio, we note that Transense Technologies profited from a tax benefit which contributed UK£300k to profit. It's always a bit noteworthy when a company is paid by the tax man, rather than paying the tax man. The receipt of a tax benefit is obviously a good thing, on its own. However, the devil in the detail is that these kind of benefits only impact in the year they are booked, and are often one-off in nature. Assuming the tax benefit is not repeated every year, we could see its profitability drop noticeably, all else being equal. While we think it's good that the company has booked a tax benefit, it does mean that there's every chance the statutory profit will come in a lot higher than it would be if the income was adjusted for one-off factors.