Who wrote this article?

Deepak Shenoy, Capitalmind's research team.

Don't believe the headlines

11 Jan 2007Deepak Shenoy1 min read

Quick Facts

What is "Don't believe the headlines" about?
What category is this article in?: Stocks
Who wrote this article?: Deepak Shenoy, Capitalmind's research team.
When was this article published?: Published 11 January 2007.
How long does this article take to read?: 1 min read

Look at the following two headlines:

These are headings from the same web site, and it conveys the Q3 2007 results of two companies, Infosys and Sintex.

If you go by this heading you will think that Infosys has had a lacklustre performance but Sintex has done excellently.

But the problem is - each company has been reported differently! Infosys has been reported on a Quarter on Quarter (QoQ) comparison, that is, Q3 2007 results compared to Q2 2007.

Sintex, on the other hand, has been reported on it’s Year-on-Year (YoY) performance, i.e. Q3 2007 compared with Q3 2006.

This is not clear when you look at the headings - ALWAYS look inside results to see the true performance.

Comparing apples to apples now, here is the performance of Sintex and Infosys:

QoQ

Infosys: +6%

Sintex: -17.8% (Negative, earlier quarter had higher profits)

YoY

Infosys: +51%

Sintex: 27%

You see how different it is when you have the real picture? Don’t trust the headlines; do your own research.