Is there an easy way to find out the true earnings of companies?

Many companies nowadays exclude the so called non-recurring expenses from the earnings they report. Which makes their earnings seem better than they actually are, especially if these companies keep having some non-recurring expenses every quarter and every year.





It's like I don't buy a TV every quarter or a car every year. But if I keep buying something different every quarter, then my expenses can easily exceed my earnings every year. And eventually I can end up deeply in debt and bankrupt as a result of all of these non-recurring expenses.





I'd like to know what the real net earnings of companies are with everything included. But that kind of information seems to be awfully hard to find. And it's hard to trust the numbers at various websites because sometimes companies include everything in their earnings reports and sometimes they don't include everything.Is there an easy way to find out the true earnings of companies?
One answer is to look at the income statement on yahoo finance and recalculate yourself.





Remember, sometimes non-recurring items are income and not expenses.





The other choice is to do what most successful traders do: follow the trend. Buy it if it's going up and short it if it's going down. All the numbers can be cooked by management. Look at Enron and CWTR.Is there an easy way to find out the true earnings of companies?
You need to read the 10-K thoroughly.
The best way is to go to SEC filings, and read through everything yourself. While time consuming, this is the best way. http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/com鈥?/a>





You'll want to read a 10q or two, and at least one 10k.





Even so, the earnings that you see on Websites (i.e. Yahoo finance) do include these one-time charges. These are GAAP earnings, and they do include the one-time charges, so I think that your concern is a little bit unwarranted. Here's an article that discusses this: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/20鈥?/a>





Finally, while I wouldn't dare defend companies that like to report non-gaap earnings next to their gaap earnings, I will say that the example you stated, buying a T.V. every quarter, isn't what they are trying to back-out. Those types of purchases are capital expenditures, and they are accounted for using depreciation. Instead, they tend to back-out one-time charges like lawsuits, restructuring charges (i.e. when they fire a bunch of workers and give them severance), etc.





Still, you might be concerned that some companies may be spending lots on capital expenditures in recent quarters, without seeing a huge hit to earnings due to depreciation rules, so it is for that reason that many value investors recommend looking at the cash flow statement, instead of just the income statement, when valuing a company.





Sincerely,





Jason