Helsinki Stock Exchange illusions: four misleading earnings reports
In the stock market, there is often a rule that accounting is like a car's paint job – it can hide rust as well as conceal true power. The first quarter earnings season of 2026 on the Helsinki Stock Exchange offered several such examples where the initial big numbers led investors astray. Now, at the end of May, when the initial emotion has faded and the market is quietly starting to set expectations for the next quarter, it is the right moment to look behind the numbers. We examine four well-known companies whose headline profit growth or decline has been heavily distorted by extraordinary events.
Fiskars' first quarter report initially gave the impression of an exceptionally successful business period, as the company's operating profit grew by a staggering 526,1% and reached 19,6 million euros. At the same time, however, the company's sales revenue fell by 3,1% to 282,9 million euros. This contradiction clearly shows that the powerful profit jump that made the headlines is deceptive and does not reflect the actual sales success of the products.
Behind the massive growth is actually the weak comparison base of the same period last year, when the company wrote off 26,4 million euros worth of digital and IT assets. If this one-off cost is removed from the picture, we see that Fiskars is improving its result primarily through strict cost control, not through growing demand – operating expenses decreased by 11,2% year-on-year. For investors, this means that although the company has become more efficient, actual sales growth is still waiting for its time.
The first quarter numbers of the Finnish logistics company Posti seemingly showed excellent momentum, as operating profit grew by 178,0% year-on-year and reached 13,9 million euros. In reality, however, the company's sales revenue shrank by 1,3% to 352,5 million euros. This means that behind the profit growth is not more successful parcel delivery or letter sending, but something else entirely.
In fact, the quarter's result was saved by an extraordinary real estate transaction, which generated 12,4 million euros in revenue from the sale of investment property located in Vantaa. Without this one-off injection, the core operating profit would have actually fallen. Investors should be cautious here and understand that one-off real estate sales do not change the fact that the company's core business remains under pressure due to the digitizing postal market.
The insurance giant Sampo's first quarter report might have startled quite a few investors, as the company's operating profit plummeted by a staggering 92,6% and was limited to just 28 million euros. At the same time, sales revenue showed a very decent 5,7% growth, reaching 2,6 billion euros. This is a classic example of a situation where the initial number paints a much bleaker picture of the company's health than reality.
The sharp drop in profit was caused purely by the volatility of the financial markets – the company's net investment income turned from a profit of 80 million euros last year to a loss of 276 million euros. However, Sampo's actual insurance business is in very good shape, which is also confirmed by the fact that the management raised the forecast for the full-year 2026 underwriting result. For investors, there is an important lesson here: in the case of an insurance company, short-term investment losses must be separated from a stable and strong core business.
The construction company YIT's first quarter results showed a drastic 516,7% drop in operating profit, which led the company to a loss of 25 million euros. Sales revenue fell at the same time by 3,4% to 373,0 million euros. Although the numbers are undoubtedly red, the actual extent of the loss is heavily amplified by accounting factors.
A large part, or 24 million euros, of this loss was made up of a negative change in the fair value of financial assets, which is a one-off paper expense. At the same time, this accounting nuance should not overly reassure investors. Even if this extraordinary expense is excluded, YIT's core business is still struggling, as the Finnish residential construction market remains weak and the company's operating expenses have grown. This is an example of a situation where the numbers are artificially bad, but the actual picture does not offer much comfort yet.
Conclusion
Today's examples from the Helsinki Stock Exchange vividly prove that investment decisions should never be made based solely on press release headlines. In the case of Fiskars and Posti, one-off events hid the weakness of the core business, creating an illusion of strong growth. For Sampo and YIT, however, accounting and investment losses made the picture visually much worse than the companies' actual business situation would have suggested. One of the most important skills of a successful investor is the ability to separate one-off noise from the company's true long-term value.
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