Marvel's Mostly Mighty: Fool by Numbers By Tim Beyers February 26, 2007 This morning, Stock Advisor selection Marvel Entertainment (NYSE: MVL) released earnings for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31.
  Marvel beat analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines.  Cash from operations was up significantly, too. But $140 million of the increase is attributable to cash prepayments made by Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) for a new toy licensing deal, and licensees hoping to cash in on Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Spider-Man 3, which hits theaters May 3.  What's more, management said higher taxes would affect per-share earnings. Accordingly, the budding studio cut the low end of its full-year EPS guidance to $1.30 a stub.  (Figures in thousands, except per-share data)
  Income Statement Highlights 
   FY 2006   FY 2005   Change    Sales  $351,798  $390,507  (9.9%)    Net Profit  $58,704  $102,819  (42.9%)    EPS  $0.67  $0.97  (30.9%)    Diluted Shares  87,230  106,058  (17.8%)   
  Get back to basics with a look at the income statement.
  Margin Checkup
   FY 2006   FY 2005   Change*    Gross Margin  70.56%  87.06%  (16.50)    Operating Margin  32.00%  43.83%  (11.83)    Net Margin  16.69%  26.33%  (9.64)    * Expressed in percentage points. 
  Margins are the earnings engine. See how they work.
  Balance Sheet Highlights 
  Assets   FY 2006   FY 2005   Change    Cash + ST Invest.  $31,945  $39,366  (18.9%)    Accounts Rec.  $59,392  $59,108  0.5%    Inventory  $10,224  $9,177  11.4%   
  Liabilities   FY 2006   FY 2005   Change    Accounts Payable  $5,112  $3,724  37.3%    Long-Term Debt*  $17,000  $0  N/A    *Credit facility 
  Learn the ways of the balance sheet.
  Cash Flow Checkup 
   FY 2006   FY 2005   Change    Cash From Ops.  $158,175  $137,737  14.8%    Capital Expenditures  $16,286  $4,289  279.7%    Free Cash Flow  $141,889  $133,448  6.3%   
  Find out why Fools always follow the money.
  Related Foolishness: 
  There's a ghost rider at the box office!  David Gardner thinks Marvel is still marvelous.  Find out why Foolish colleague Steven Mallas loves Marvel.  There's a new iron maiden in town.  Hasbro and Marvel are both Stock Advisor picks. Click here to get access to get 30 days of free access to the entire portfolio, which is beating the market by more than 42%.
  Fool by Numbers is designed to give you the raw earnings information in a timely fashion, putting all the numbers you need in one easy-to-read place. But at The Motley Fool, we believe numbers tell only part of the story, so check Fool.com for more of our in-depth discussion of what the numbers mean. 
  Fool contributor Tim Beyers, ranked 1,720 out of more than 23,300 in Motley Fool CAPS, still owns more than 2,000 comic books. He's partial to Iron Man and, geek that he is, will probably wait in line to see ol' Shellhead's film in May 2008. Tim didn't own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article at the time of publication. All of his portfolio holdings can be found at Tim's Fool profile. His thoughts on Foolishness and investing may be found in his blog. The Motley Fool's disclosure policy always adds up.  |