American Science Engineers Growth: Fool by Numbers

On May 21, backscatter X-ray specialist American Science & Engineering (Nasdaq: ASEI  ) released fourth-quarter earnings for the period ended March 31.

• Though fourth-quarter sales and earnings grew, full-year revenue decreased 6% to $153.2 million and EPS was down 27% to $2.38.
• Our Motley Fool CAPS community is quite fond of this Rule Breakers recommendation, collectively rating the stock five stars.

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

Income Statement Highlights

	Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change
Sales	$45,919	$40,761	12.7%
Net Profit	$5,790	$4,725	22.5%
EPS	$0.60	$0.51	17.6%
Diluted Shares	9,380	9,337	0.5%

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin Checkup

	Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change*
	38.3%	47.7%	(9.5)
	17.5%	27.1%	(9.5)
	12.6%	11.6%	1.0

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets	Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change
Cash + ST Invest.	$138,537	$93,870	47.6%
Accounts Rec.	$23,366	$25,868	(9.7%)
Inventory	$20,140	$16,886	19.3%

Liabilities	Q4 2007	Q4 2006	Change
Accounts Payable	$8,117	$6,659	21.9%
Long-Term Debt	$10,379	$9,630	7.8%

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash Flow Highlights
Not even X-ray vision could help us find the nonexistent cash flow statement.

Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend.

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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.

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