Ctrip.com Is a Jet-Setter: Fool by Numbers

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On May 16, online Chinese travel specialist and Motley Fool Hidden Gems pick Ctrip.com International (Nasdaq: CTRP) released first-quarter earnings for the period ended March 31.

• Fly on over to our earnings take to see why Ctrip.com makes the A-List.
• Net revenues increased by 54.5% to $30.1 million, thanks to a 40% increase in sales from hotel reservations and a 64% increase in air ticket sales.
• Margins took a hit as a result of higher cost of services associated with packaged tours and air ticketing.
• Next quarter, the company is not letting go of the gas; they're expecting a 35% year-over-year increase in revenue. The company also recently launched a limousine service in 11 Chinese cities, which should continue to pump more dollars into the business.
• Ctrip.com holds the highest CAPS rating, five stars, putting it even with Chinese competitor eLong (Nasdaq: LONG). Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE), another company that has a share of the Asian online travel business, holds a four-star rating. While Ctrip.com doesn't beat eLong in CAPS, its numbers for this past quarter do.

(Figures in thousands, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Net Sales	$30,067.3	$19,463.0	54.5%
Net Profit	$8,406.1	$6,038.3	39.2%
EPS	$0.25	$0.18	38.9%
Diluted Shares	33,742.4	32,815.6	2.8%

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

Margin Checkup

	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change*
Gross Margin	79.1%	82.0%	(2.9)
Operating Margin	30.6%	32.0%	(1.3)
Net Margin	28.0%	31.0%	(3.1)

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine. See how they work.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$111,221.8	$98,223.5	13.2%
Accounts Rec.	$25,722.7	$12,018.5	114.0%
Inventory	N/A	N/A	N/A

Liabilities	Q1 2007	Q1 2006	Change
Accounts Payable	$27,259.6	$9,806.6	178.0%
Long-Term Debt	$0.0	$0.0	N/A

Learn the ways of the balance sheet.

Cash Flow Highlights

Ctrip.com must have left on a jet plane, because it forgot to include a cash flow statement in the press release.

Related Foolishness:

• Ctrip's on the A-List
• It's Time to Go Global
• Fool on Call: Boarding Call for Ctrip
• eLong Comes Up Short

If small-cap investing is your boarding call, try a free 30-day trial of Motley Fool Hidden Gems.

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.