Should You Be Adding Australian Ethical Investment (ASX:AEF) To Your Watchlist Today? – Yahoo Finance

Like a puppy chasing its tail, some new investors often chase ‘the next big thing’, even if that means buying ‘story stocks’ without revenue, let alone profit. And in their study titled Who Falls Prey to the Wolf of Wall Street?’ Leuz et. al. found that it is ‘quite common’ for investors to lose money by buying into ‘pump and dump’ schemes.

In the age of tech-stock blue-sky investing, my choice may seem old fashioned; I still prefer profitable companies like Australian Ethical Investment (ASX:AEF). While profit is not necessarily a social good, it’s easy to admire a business that can consistently produce it. While a well funded company may sustain losses for years, unless its owners have an endless appetite for subsidizing the customer, it will need to generate a profit eventually, or else breathe its last breath.

Check out our latest analysis for Australian Ethical Investment

How Quickly Is Australian Ethical Investment Increasing Earnings Per Share?

The market is a voting machine in the short term, but a weighing machine in the long term, so share price follows earnings per share (EPS) eventually. That makes EPS growth an attractive quality for any company. I, for one, am blown away by the fact that Australian Ethical Investment has grown EPS by 47% per year, over the last three years. While that sort of growth rate isn’t sustainable for long, it certainly catches my attention; like a crow with a sparkly stone.

One way to double-check a company’s growth is to look at how its revenue, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins are changing. The good news is that Australian Ethical Investment is growing revenues, and EBIT margins improved by 4.3 percentage points to 29%, over the last year. Ticking those two boxes is a good sign of growth, in my book.

You can take a look at the company’s revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. For finer detail, click on the image.

While profitability drives the upside, prudent investors always check the balance sheet, too.

Are Australian Ethical Investment Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

I like company leaders to have some skin in the game, so to speak, because it increases alignment of incentives between the people running the business, and its true owners. So it is good to see that Australian Ethical Investment insiders have a significant amount of capital invested in the stock. With a whopping AU$121m worth of shares as a group, insiders have plenty riding on the company’s success. That holding amounts to 25% of the stock on issue, thus making insiders influential, and aligned, owners of the business.

It’s good to see that insiders are invested in the company, but are remuneration levels reasonable? A brief analysis of the CEO compensation suggests they are. I discovered that the median total compensation for the CEOs of companies like Australian Ethical Investment with market caps between AU$284m and AU$1.1b is about AU$1.0m.

The Australian Ethical Investment CEO received total compensation of just AU$482k in the year to . That’s clearly well below average, so at a glance, that arrangement seems generous to shareholders, and points to a modest remuneration culture. CEO remuneration levels are not the most important metric for investors, but when the pay is modest, that does support enhanced alignment between the CEO and the ordinary shareholders. It can also be a sign of good governance, more generally.

Is Australian Ethical Investment Worth Keeping An Eye On?

Australian Ethical Investment’s earnings have taken off like any random crypto-currency did, back in 2017. The cherry on top is that insiders own a bucket-load of shares, and the CEO pay seems really quite reasonable. The sharp increase in earnings could signal good business momentum. Big growth can make big winners, so I do think Australian Ethical Investment is worth considering carefully. It’s still necessary to consider the ever-present spectre of investment risk. We’ve identified 1 warning sign with Australian Ethical Investment , and understanding this should be part of your investment process.

You can invest in any company you want. But if you prefer to focus on stocks that have demonstrated insider buying, here is a list of companies with insider buying in the last three months.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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