The Deal at Dillard's: Fool by Numbers

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On Feb. 27, retailer Dillard's (NYSE: DDS) released fourth-quarter earnings for the period ended Feb. 3.

• Sales increased 2.6% for the quarter, which included an extra week compared to last year's quarter.
• Gross margins for the quarter declined because of a hurricane recovery gain of $28.2 million in last year's quarter.
• Only 14 of 42 investors in Motley Fool CAPS believe Dillard's will outperform the S&P 500. That's not a very positive sentiment. If you have an opinion, bring it to CAPS!

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change
Sales	$2,399.8	$2,338.2	2.6%
Net Profit	$155.0	$98.5	57.4%
EPS	$1.90	$1.24	53.2%
Diluted Shares	81.5	79.2	2.9%

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

Margin Checkup

	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change*
Gross Margin	32.8%	33.6%	(0.8)
Operating Margin	6.9%	7.6%	(0.7)
Net Margin	6.5%	4.2%	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.	$194.0	$299.8	(35.3%)
Accounts Rec.	$10.5	$12.5	(16.0%)
Inventory	$1,772.1	$1,802.7	(1.7%)

Liabilities	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change
Accounts Payable*	$797.8	$858.1	(7.0%)
Total Debt**	$1,089.2	$1,295.2	(15.9%)

*Includes accrued expenses.
**Includes capital leases.

Learn the ways of the balance sheet.

Cash Flow Highlights
Full cash flow data will be available in the 10-K.

Find out why Fools always follow the money.

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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.