Operating profit
Profit from the core business: revenue less cost of sales and operating expenses.
How to read the number
Shows whether a company makes money doing what it does — before any question of how it is financed.
When the metric lies
One-off items often land in operating profit: an asset sale, a write-off, a fine. A year with one large transaction looks like a year of excellent operations.
Where it is used
The metric is calculated across every security in the catalogue and appears on the instrument card, in the multiples table and in the screener.
Also known as: operating profit, operating income