(3) Companies are often at their most vulnerable after having completed some major restructuring which has caused profits to dip.

The two world wars both affected growth: during the first, dried milk was widely used but the second war caused profits to drop by around 70%.

Since they did that, it has risen in price, causing losses for them and profits for the mysterious buyer.

Greater competition for new investors will likely cause expense ratios, and profits, to fall.

This caused profits to appear unexpectedly, and big ones at that.

The risk is that Apple's increase in volume will not quite make up for the lower margins, causing profits to drop.

They view a diminishing prison population as one that causes decreasing profits.

Those costs cause profits to shrink, owners to suffer and chief executives sometimes to be dismissed.

The group closed its doors to new business in early 2008, as the freeze on wholesale credit funding caused profits to fall from £90m to £53.7m.

There is more steel than demand, and that has caused prices - and profits - to remain in the doldrums.