Imagine a doctor who checks your body temperature but never looks at your heart, lungs, or other organs. That would miss a lot, right? A company’s overall profit number can hide just as much. In this chapter, we open up the financial statements and examine the separate parts of a business. We track how performance changes over time, compare the firm to its competitors, and use industry benchmarks — all while watching out for the traps that can make those comparisons misleading.