On Feb. 8, Motley Fool Income Investor pick Unilever (NYSE:UL) released fourth-quarter earnings for the period ended Dec. 31.

  • Net sales of the company increase by 7%, thanks to positive impact of foreign exchange rate.
  • Sales grew globally, with a 1% increase in Europe, a 3.7% increase in America, and a 7.7% increase in Asia.
  • The company forecasts its underlying sales growth to be within 3%-5% in 2007.
  • Operating margins are expected to increase by 13.6% for fiscal 2007.
  • Unilever is a four-star stock in our CAPS community intelligence service. To add your opinion to the database, join the service for free today!

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

Q4 2006

Q4 2005

Change

Sales

$12,497.0

$11,680.0

7.0%

Net Profit

$1,153.0

$814.0

41.6%

EPS

$0.36

$0.25

44.0%

Diluted Shares

2,972.5

3,006.9

(1.1%)



Get back to basics with a look at the income statement.

Margin Checkup

Q4 2006

Q4 2005

Change*

Operating Margin

11.0%

10.2%

0.8

Net Margin

9.2%

7.0%

2.3

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine. See how they work.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets

Q4 2006

Q4 2005

Change

Cash + ST Invest.

$1,368.0

$1,811.0

(24.5%)

Accounts Rec.

$5,649.0

$5,719.0

(1.2%)

Inventory

$5,001.0

$4,863.0

2.8%



Liabilities

Q4 2006

Q4 2005

Change

Accounts Payable

$10,449.0

$9,742.0

7.3%

Long-Term Debt

$5,583.0

$7,645.0

(27.0%)



Learn the ways of the balance sheet.

Cash Flow Highlights

2006

2005

Change

Cash From Ops.

$5,657.0

$5,416.0

4.4%

Capital Expenditures

$1,171.0

$1,011.0

15.8%

Free Cash Flow

$4,486.0

$4,405.0

1.8%



Find out why Fools always follow the money.

Related Companies:

  • Kraft Foods (NYSE:KFT)
  • Groupe Danone (NYSE:DA)
  • Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE:ADM)
  • General Mills (NYSE:GIS)
  • H.J. Heinz (NYSE:HNZ)

Related Foolishness:

Unilever, Kraft Foods, and H.J. Heinz are Income Investor recommendations. To see what other companies have been recommended to subscribers of the market-beating newsletter, take a free 30-day trial today.

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. This data has been provided by Netscribes. To provide feedback on this article, please click on the "feedback" button below.