It's common for many investors, especially those who are inexperienced, to buy shares in companies with a good story even if these companies are loss-making. But the reality is that when a company loses money each year, for long enough, its investors will usually take their share of those losses. A loss-making company is yet to prove itself with profit, and eventually the inflow of external capital may dry up.

So if this idea of high risk and high reward doesn't suit, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like Standex International (NYSE:SXI). Now this is not to say that the company presents the best investment opportunity around, but profitability is a key component to success in business.

View our latest analysis for Standex International

Standex International's Earnings Per Share Are Growing

If you believe that markets are even vaguely efficient, then over the long term you'd expect a company's share price to follow its earnings per share (EPS) outcomes. That makes EPS growth an attractive quality for any company. To the delight of shareholders, Standex International has achieved impressive annual EPS growth of 52%, compound, over the last three years. Growth that fast may well be fleeting, but it should be more than enough to pique the interest of the wary stock pickers.

It's often helpful to take a look at earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins, as well as revenue growth, to get another take on the quality of the company's growth. It was a year of stability for Standex International as both revenue and EBIT margins remained have been flat over the past year. That's not a major concern but nor does it point to the long term growth we like to see.

You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

The trick, as an investor, is to find companies that are going to perform well in the future, not just in the past. While crystal balls don't exist, you can check our visualization of consensus analyst forecasts for Standex International's future EPS 100% free.

Are Standex International Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

It should give investors a sense of security owning shares in a company if insiders also own shares, creating a close alignment their interests. So it is good to see that Standex International insiders have a significant amount of capital invested in the stock. Indeed, they hold US$38m worth of its stock. That shows significant buy-in, and may indicate conviction in the business strategy. While their ownership only accounts for 2.0%, this is still a considerable amount at stake to encourage the business to maintain a strategy that will deliver value to shareholders.