Margins matter. The more Crown Media Holdings
Here's the current margin snapshot for Crown Media Holdings over the trailing 12 months: Gross margin is 58.1%, while operating margin is 39.3% and net margin is 19.3%.
Unfortunately, a look at the most recent numbers doesn't tell us much about where Crown Media Holdings has been, or where it's going. A company with rising gross and operating margins often fuels its growth by increasing demand for its products. If it sells more units while keeping costs in check, its profitability increases. Conversely, a company with gross margins that inch downward over time is often losing out to competition, and possibly engaging in a race to the bottom on prices. If it can't make up for this problem by cutting costs -- and most companies can't -- then both the business and its shares face a decidedly bleak outlook.
Of course, over the short term, the kind of economic shocks we recently experienced can drastically affect a company's profitability. That's why I like to look at five fiscal years' worth of margins, along with the results for the trailing 12 months, the last fiscal year, and last fiscal quarter (LFQ). You can't always reach a hard conclusion about your company's health, but you can better understand what to expect, and what to watch.
Here's the margin picture for Crown Media Holdings over the past few years.
Source: S&P Capital IQ. Dollar amounts in millions. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.
Because of seasonality in some businesses, the numbers for the last period on the right -- the TTM figures -- aren't always comparable to the FY results preceding them. Here's how the stats break down:
- Over the past five years, gross margin peaked at 54.3% and averaged 45.9%. Operating margin peaked at 34.4% and averaged 18.9%. Net margin peaked at 98.6% and averaged 3.6%.
- TTM gross margin is 58.1%, 1,220 basis points better than the five-year average. TTM operating margin is 39.3%, 2,040 basis points better than the five-year average. TTM net margin is 19.3%, 1,570 basis points better than the five-year average.
With recent TTM operating margins exceeding historical averages, Crown Media Holdings looks like it is doing fine.
- Add Crown Media Holdings to My Watchlist.