THE time of quarterly results are such that investors in equities need to pay attention to what is happening. There are several trends that might be visible but when it comes to the overall equity investments, the requirement of seeing the results and what they actually indicate is very important. This happens because the longterm performance of the stock of a company is dependent on the kind of results that are declared to a large extent, and this is one area that should receive the focus of investors. Here are a few things that everyone should look out for.

Overall growth:

The first thing that investors should look out for in the case of the quarterly results is whether the company is on the path of growth or not.

This would be visible in the form of the rise in the sales of the company as well as the rise in the net profits that are recorded at the end of the day. There has to be a trend whereby these are rising over a period of time, as this will indicate that there is some improvement that is being witnessed. However, this is not the end of the matter but rather it is the start because just ensuring overall growth will not lead to a situation where the company’s stock will perform. It also has to be seen in the context of the overall situation around in the sense that is the overall economy growing and what is the kind of growth that peers are witnessing in the same industry.

Beating competition:

If a company is witnessing an outperformance in the sales as well as profits then this is a good sign because investors would be willing to pay more to hold stock in the company. There could be some quarters when the position is weakened a bit due to the overall conditions but over a period of time there has to be an element of consistency in the company’s performance in the sense that this should be above the industry average and there should also be gain in market share. If this is done then there would be a favourable look at what the company is doing. The profitability is also a factor to be considered and hence a profit margin that is rising as well as higher than the other players in the market is something that would be desirable for the company.

Expectation:

 For long-term investors, the short-term movements in the stock price can seem to be a bit disturbing. This happens due to the fact that there are expectations that are often built into the stock price that shows large movements before the actual results come out. Then when they are released the entire game consists of looking at the expectation and then seeing whether this is better or not. This can lead to a situation where the behaviour in the short term cannot be easily explained so even when profits are way up the share could be falling.

Long-term investors need to look at the fact that there is a bigger picture that needs their attention, as the trend over the longer term in the share price will be reflective of the performance that the company is actually showing.

Hence, the focus has to be on the fact that the company is able to ensure that there is a constant improvement in the overall performance. This would ensure that the basis or the fundamentals for making the investment is sound.

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