Should You Be Content With The E W Scripps Company’s (NYSE:SSP) 143.7% Earnings Growth?
Examining how The E W Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP) is performing as a company requires looking at more than just a years’ earnings. Below, I will run you through a simple sense check to build perspective on how E. W. Scripps is doing by comparing its most recent earnings with its historical trend, in addition to the performance of its media industry peers. View our latest analysis for E. W. Scripps
How Well Did SSP Perform?
To account for any quarterly or half-yearly updates, I use the ‘latest twelve-month’ data, which either annualizes the most recent 6-month earnings update, or in some cases, the most recent annual report is already the latest available financial data. This blend enables me to assess different stocks on a similar basis, using new information. For E. W. Scripps, the latest earnings is $17.7M, which, relative to last year’s figure, has escalated by more than double. Since these figures may be relatively nearsighted, I’ve computed an annualized five-year value for E. W. Scripps’s net income, which stands at $6.4M. This suggests that, generally, E. W. Scripps has been able to steadily improve its net income over the last couple of years as well.
What’s the driver of this growth? Let’s take a look at if it is only due to industry tailwinds, or if E. W. Scripps has seen some company-specific growth. Over the last few years, E. W. Scripps increased its bottom line faster than revenue by efficiently controlling its costs. This has led to a margin expansion and profitability over time. Inspecting growth from a sector-level, the US media industry has been relatively flat in terms of earnings growth over the last couple of years. This means any recent headwind the industry is experiencing, the impact on E. W. Scripps has been softer relative to its peers.
What does this mean?
E. W. Scripps’s track record can be a valuable insight into its earnings performance, but it certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. Positive growth and profitability are what investors like to see in a company’s track record, but how do we properly assess sustainability? I suggest you continue to research E. W. Scripps to get a better picture of the stock by looking at:
1. Future Outlook: What are well-informed industry analysts predicting for SSP’s future growth? Take a look at our free research report of analyst consensus for SSP’s outlook.
2. Financial Health: Is SSP’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why we’ve done it for you. Check out our financial health checks here.
3. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore our free list of these great stocks here.
NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the last twelve months, which refer to the 12-month period ending on the last date of the month the financial statement is dated. This may not be consistent with full year annual report figures.
To help readers see pass the short term volatility of the financial market, we aim to bring you a long-term focused research analysis purely driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis does not factor in the latest price sensitive company announcements.
The author is an independent contributor and at the time of publication had no position in the stocks mentioned.
