All the numbers tell you something different. Ultimate, you can make money whether or not the company makes money, because you are going to make money by selling the stock at a higher price than you bought it. The other numbers help you predict whether you will be able to do that.
So if a company has a history of profit making, you might predict it will continue to do so. But that’s not the case, necessarily. It depends on management and market conditions and what will change. So if a company is making profits, but it’s gross profit is falling, and they’ve been making profit by cutting expenses, there may only be so far they can cut expenses. If gross profit keeps on falling, and expenses level out, they will soon stop making a profit.
Or maybe the company has been selling a lot of stuff, but not making much money, and they hire a management team that excels at cutting expenses. You might want to buy that stock if you think the manager will be successful.
Or maybe the company has a bunch of new products coming online. You think those products will do very well. You might want to buy that stock. Maybe you think that the economy is going to come roaring back. You might want to buy housing companies and furniture companies and appliance companies, because their sales will go up if people start buying new houses again.
I think oil companies and energy companies will almost always do well, especially over time. So you have to look at how long you want to hold the stock for. Are you a day trader or a buy and hold kind of guy? Myself, I prefer to buy and hold. But then again, I prefer to let professionals buy and hold for me.
This is not an easy game. In the end, you have to make a gut choice and stick with it.