On Tuesday, iEverything maker Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) released earnings for the 2007 fiscal year ended Sept. 29.

  • Rick Munarriz told us in no uncertain terms that Apple would impress, and it did. Can I borrow your crystal ball, Rick?
  • The iPhone contributed $123 million to 2007 sales, which is a nice start but still looks tiny next to the $10.8 billion generated by the iPod/iTunes complex.
  • The operating cash machine is growing even faster than sales or earnings. That's like waving Harlequin garb in front of a Fool -- a signal to charge in and look for more "buy" signals.

(Figures in millions, except per-share data)

Income Statement Highlights

FY 2007

FY 2006

Change

Sales

$24,006

$19,315

24.3%

Net Profit

$3,496

$1,989

75.8%

EPS

$3.93

$2.27

73.1%

Diluted Shares

889.3

877.5

1.3%

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin Checkup

FY 2007

FY 2006

Change*

Gross Margin

34.0%

29.0%

5.0

Operating Margin

18.4%

12.7%

5.7

Net Margin

14.6%

10.3%

4.3

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance Sheet Highlights

Assets

FY 2007

FY 2006

Change

Cash + ST Invest.

$15,386

$10,110

52.2%

Accounts Rec.

$1,637

$1,252

30.8%

Inventory

$346

$270

28.1%

Liabilities

FY 2007

FY 2006

Change

Accounts Payable

$4,970

$3,390

46.6%

Long-Term Debt

$0

$0

N/A

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash Flow Highlights

FY 2007

FY 2006

Change

Cash From Ops.

$5,474

$2,220

146.6%

Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend. However, all we got today is his brother.

Competitive Context

Market Cap

Trailing P/E Ratio

CAPS Rating (out of 5)

Apple

$150,882.7

43.2

***

Dell (NASDAQ:DELL)

$64,014.1

22.0

**

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ)

$132,228.8

20.7

****

SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK)

$10,050.2

132.4

****

RealNetworks (NASDAQ:RNWK)

$972.0

9.4

**

Napster (NASDAQ:NAPS)

$152.0

N/A

*

I'm using the latest reported numbers from Capital IQ. Nobody is anybody without some context.

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