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*

Gross Margin

38.3%

47.7%

(9.5)

Operating Margin

17.5%

27.1%

(9.5)

Net Margin

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.

Related Foolishness:

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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