Kraft's Real Cheese: Fool by Numbers

On April 18, Motley Fool Income Investor pick Kraft (NYSE: KFT  ) released first-quarter earnings for the period ended March 31.

• For all the cheesy goodness going on at Kraft, take a look at this earnings morsel.
• Revenues increased 5.7%, while organic revenues increased 3.6%.
• The company spent $88 million under its cost-restructuring program in the quarter, and it expects to incur a further $625 million in 2007.
• During the quarter, Kraft repurchased 5.9 million shares at a total cost of $187 million; the company has a new $5 billion repurchase plan in place.
• Kraft is only rated two stars by the Motley Fool CAPS community. But that's on par with rival Heinz (NYSE: HNZ  ) , and ahead of other food stocks like ConAgra (NYSE: CAG  ) and Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE  ) . Join CAPS for free today to see what everyone is saying.

(Figures in millions, except per-share data.)

Income Statement Highlights

	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Sales	$8,586	$8,123	5.7%
Net Profit	$702	$1,006	(30.2%)
EPS	$0.43	$0.61	(29.5%)
Diluted Shares	1,636	1,662	(1.6%)

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin Checkup

	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change*
	35.5%	36.1%	(0.6)
	13.1%	12.5%	0.6
	8.2%	12.4%	(4.2)

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$251	$267	(6%)
Accounts Rec.	$3,977	$3,431	15.9%
Inventory	$3,881	$3,587	8.2%

Liabilities	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Accounts Payable	$2,574	$2,020	27.4%
Long-Term Debt	$7,081	$8,476	(16.5%)

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash Flow Highlights

Kraft's lack of cash flow data left a bad taste in our mouth.

Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend.

Related Foolishness:

• Before the Call: Slicing Up Kraft 
• Coca-Cola vs. Altria: Coca-Cola
• Del Monte in the Doghouse?

Kraft and Heinz are both Motley Fool Income Investor recommendations. To see what picks are helping the newsletter service beat the market, 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.