Amazon Looks Amazing: Fool by Numbers

On Jan. 30, online retail veteran Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) released earnings for the 2007 fiscal year -- a period ended Dec. 31, 2007.

If you're interested in the quarterly results, read our earnings take.
2006 was an off year for Amazon, as earnings took a dive after two years at higher than $350 million. The company is back to its profitable and cash-generating ways.
Some of the recent growth comes from unique initiatives like the DRM-free digital music store and the warehouse-sharing Fulfillment By Amazon service. Adoption of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) continues to grow. As an indicator of adoption, bandwidth utilized by these services in the fourth quarter 2007 was even greater than bandwidth utilized by all of Amazon.com's global websites combined.
Despite its virtues, Amazon remains a lowly two-star CAPS stock. Is that an unfair rating? Maybe it's too generous? Weigh in with one thumb and two cents right here.

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin Checkup

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	FY 2007	FY 2006	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$3,112	$2,019	54.1%
Accounts Rec.	$705	$399	76.7%
Inventory	$1,200	$877	36.8%

Liabilities	FY 2007	FY 2006	Change
Accounts Payable	$2,795	$1,816	53.9%
Long-Term Debt	$1,282	$1,247	2.8%

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash Flow Highlights

Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend.

Competitive Context

Using the latest reported numbers from Capital IQ. Keep your partners close and the competition in your vest pocket.

Related Foolishness:

NASDAQ: AMZN