For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it currently lacks a track record of revenue and profit. Unfortunately, these high risk investments often have little probability of ever paying off, and many investors pay a price to learn their lesson. Loss-making companies are always racing against time to reach financial sustainability, so investors in these companies may be taking on more risk than they should.

So if this idea of high risk and high reward doesn't suit, you might be more interested in profitable, growing companies, like CGI (TSE:GIB.A). While this doesn't necessarily speak to whether it's undervalued, the profitability of the business is enough to warrant some appreciation - especially if its growing.

View our latest analysis for CGI

How Fast Is CGI Growing?

If a company can keep growing earnings per share (EPS) long enough, its share price should eventually follow. Therefore, there are plenty of investors who like to buy shares in companies that are growing EPS. Over the last three years, CGI has grown EPS by 14% per year. That's a good rate of growth, if it can be sustained.

One way to double-check a company's growth is to look at how its revenue, and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margins are changing. While we note CGI achieved similar EBIT margins to last year, revenue grew by a solid 3.5% to CA$15b. That's encouraging news for the company!

You can take a look at the company's revenue and earnings growth trend, in the chart below. Click on the chart to see the exact numbers.

Fortunately, we've got access to analyst forecasts of CGI's future profits. You can do your own forecasts without looking, or you can take a peek at what the professionals are predicting.

Are CGI Insiders Aligned With All Shareholders?

Since CGI has a market capitalisation of CA$35b, we wouldn't expect insiders to hold a large percentage of shares. But we are reassured by the fact they have invested in the company. We note that their impressive stake in the company is worth CA$193m. This comes in at 0.5% of shares in the company, which is a fair amount of a business of this size. This still shows shareholders there is a degree of alignment between management and themselves.

While it's always good to see some strong conviction in the company from insiders through heavy investment, it's also important for shareholders to ask if management compensation policies are reasonable. Well, based on the CEO pay, you'd argue that they are indeed. The median total compensation for CEOs of companies similar in size to CGI, with market caps over CA$11b, is around CA$11m.