Banking on Christopher & Banks: Fool by Numbers

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On April 11, clothing retailer Christopher & Banks (NYSE: CBK) released fourth-quarter earnings for the period ended March 3.

• Sales increased by 5.8%; however, same-store sales declined by 7%.
• The gross margin declined 6.7% as the company used aggressive discounting to clear out fall and winter inventory to make room for new stuff in the spring.
• Management expects diluted earnings in the range of $0.30 to $0.31 for the first quarter of fiscal 2008.
• Christopher & Banks has a three-star rating in Motley Fool CAPS, while competitor Chico's (NYSE: CHS) has a four-star ranking. If you have opinions on these or other companies, we'd love for you to bring them to CAPS.

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change
Sales	$134.0	$126.6	5.8%
Net Profit	$1.9	$6.7	(71.1%)
EPS	$0.05	$0.18	(72.2%)
Diluted Shares	37.3	36.4	2.6%

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

Margin Checkup

	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change*
Gross Margin	33.9%	40.6%	(6.7)
Operating Margin	1.3%	8.0%	(6.7)
Net Margin	1.4%	5.3%	(3.8)

*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.	$102.3	$92.4	10.7%
Inventory	$52.4	$37.9	38.2%

Liabilities	Q4 2006	Q4 2005	Change
Accounts Payable	$16.3	$9.9	65.3%

Learn the ways of the balance sheet.

Cash Flow Highlights
The company did not include a cash flow statement in its release. Don't worry, the info will be in the upcoming 10-K.

Related Foolishness:

• Christopher & Banks Can't Wait for Spring
• New York Gets Fired
• Chico's Cheers Up

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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.