On April 30, Atheros Communications (NASDAQ:ATHR), semiconductor specialist for the wireless world, released first-quarter earnings for the period ended Mar. 31.

  • Sales increased by 56% on the back of strong demand for WLAN and Ethernet products.
  • Anders Bylund has somewhat conflicting feelings about Atheros' earnings report and its struggle against larger rivals Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN), and Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM).
  • The stock rocks in Motley Fool CAPS, where it has garnered the highest possible rating of five stars.

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

Income Statement Highlights

Q1 2007

Q1 2006

Change

Sales

$95,518

$61,084

56.4%

Net Profit

$7,599

$6,814

11.5%

EPS

$0.13

$0.13

0.0%

Diluted Shares

58,310

54,472

7.0%

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin Checkup

Q1 2007

Q1 2006

Change*

Gross Margin

47.7%

48.2%

(0.4)

Operating Margin

7.4%

8.8%

(1.4)

Net Margin

8%

11.2%

(3.2)

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets

Q1 2007

Q1 2006

Change

Cash + ST Invest.

$206,400

$185,713

11.1%

Accounts Rec.

$53,467

$30,455

75.6%

Inventory

$31,326

$24,606

27.3%

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash Flow Highlights
One of the company's few dull spots: still no cash flow statement with earnings.

Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend.

Related Foolishness:

Intel is a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation. See what other value stocks we've rounded up by taking the service for a free, 30-day test drive.

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.