Has Heat Biologics Inc (NASDAQ:HTBX) Improved Earnings Growth In Recent Times?
For long-term investors, assessing earnings trend over time and against industry benchmarks is more beneficial than examining a single earnings announcement at a point in time. Investors may find my commentary, albeit very high-level and brief, on Heat Biologics Inc (NASDAQ:HTBX) useful as an attempt to give more color around how Heat Biologics is currently performing. View our latest analysis for Heat Biologics
Could HTBX beat the long-term trend and outperform its industry?
To account for any quarterly or half-yearly updates, I use data from the most recent 12 months, 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 technique allows me to assess different companies in a uniform manner using the most relevant data points. For Heat Biologics, its latest trailing-twelve-month earnings is -US$11.84M, which, relative to last year’s figure, has become less negative. Since these figures are somewhat short-term thinking, I’ve calculated an annualized five-year value for HTBX’s net income, which stands at -US$11.12M. This shows that, Heat Biologics has historically performed better than recently, though it seems like earnings are now heading back towards to right direction again.
We can further analyze Heat Biologics’s loss by looking at what the industry has been experiencing over the past few years. Each year, for the last five years Heat Biologics’s top-line has increased by 44.13% on average, implying that the company is in a high-growth phase with expenses racing ahead revenues, leading to annual losses. Eyeballing growth from a sector-level, the US biotechs industry has been growing its average earnings by double-digit 22.22% over the prior year, and 19.51% over the previous five years. This suggests that any uplift the industry is enjoying, Heat Biologics has not been able to reap as much as its industry peers.
What does this mean?
While past data is useful, it doesn’t tell the whole story. With companies that are currently loss-making, it is always hard to predict what will occur going forward, and when. The most valuable step is to assess company-specific issues Heat Biologics may be facing and whether management guidance has steadily been met in the past. You should continue to research Heat Biologics to get a better picture of the stock by looking at the areas below. Just a heads up – to access some parts of the Simply Wall St research tool you might be asked to create a free account, but it takes just one click and the information they provide is definitely worth it in my opinion.
1. Financial Health: Is HTBX’s operations financially sustainable? Balance sheets can be hard to analyze, which is why Simply Wall St does it for you. Check out important financial health checks here.
2. Other High-Performing Stocks: Are there other stocks that provide better prospects with proven track records? Explore a free list of these great stocks here.
NB: Figures in this article are calculated using data from the trailing twelve months from 31 December 2017. 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.
