What are we looking for?
Many companies can have volatile earnings from year to year depending on economic cycles, extraordinary items or other reasons.
It's with this in mind that many professional investors like to look at the long-term trends for financial results. This week we'll look at the most profitable companies on the S&P/TSX composite over long periods. Today we'll look at the most profitable companies over the past three years. Later this week we'll look at five-year and 10-year trends.
More about today's screen
We'll look at earnings per share growth for companies on the S&P/TSX composite over the past three years to the most recent annual results. Income, asset, earnings before interest and tax, net income and revenue growth over the past three years will also be spotlighted.
If you're interested in investing in any of these companies, you'll need to dig deeper into the financial results.
For instance, a company with steady earnings improvement is more interesting than a company that has volatile earnings from year to year or has earned a large one-time gain that skews long-term averages.
You can do more research at GlobeInvestor.com.