SAExploration Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SAEX): Should The Recent Earnings Drop Worry You?
Measuring SAExploration Holdings Inc’s (NASDAQ:SAEX) track record of past performance is an insightful exercise for investors. It enables us to reflect on whether the company has met or exceed expectations, which is a powerful signal for future performance. Below, I will assess SAEX’s recent performance announced on 31 December 2017 and compare these figures to its historical trend and industry movements. See our latest analysis for SAExploration Holdings
Commentary On SAEX’s Past Performance
I look at the ‘latest twelve-month’ data, which annualizes the latest 6-month earnings release, or some times, the latest annual report is already the most recent financial data. This method allows me to analyze different companies on a similar basis, using the most relevant data points. For SAExploration Holdings, its latest trailing-twelve-month earnings is -US$40.76M, which, in comparison to last year’s level, has become more negative. Since these values may be fairly short-term, I’ve determined an annualized five-year figure for SAExploration Holdings’s earnings, which stands at -US$20.32M. This doesn’t look much better, since earnings seem to have gradually been getting more and more negative over time.
We can further evaluate SAExploration Holdings’s loss by looking at what the industry has been experiencing over the past few years. Each year, for the past half a decade SAExploration Holdings has seen an annual decline in revenue of -6.63%, on average. This adverse movement is a driver of the company’s inability to reach breakeven. Has the entire industry experienced this headwind? Viewing growth from a sector-level, the US energy services industry has been growing its average earnings by double-digit 22.95% over the previous twelve months, . This is a turnaround from a volatile drop of -22.57% in the last couple of years. This shows that whatever uplift the industry is deriving benefit from, SAExploration Holdings has not been able to gain as much as its average peer.
What does this mean?
SAExploration Holdings’s track record can be a valuable insight into its earnings performance, but it certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. Companies that incur net loss is always difficult to envisage what will happen in the future and when. The most valuable step is to assess company-specific issues SAExploration Holdings may be facing and whether management guidance has regularly been met in the past. I recommend you continue to research SAExploration Holdings to get a better picture of the stock by looking at:
Financial Health: Is SAEX’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.
Valuation: What is SAEX worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether SAEX is currently mispriced by the market.
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 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.
