What is revenue?
Revenue is the money a company brings in from sales of products or services. Take off returns and allowances, and you have net revenues.[S1]
Companies label it differently. Amazon's income statement calls it "Total net sales".[S2]
For its fiscal year, that was $716.9B (FY2025).
Almost nothing has been subtracted yet, so revenue says how much was sold, not how much was kept.
What is operating profit?
Operating profit is what the business earns from running itself. To reach it, subtract the cost of sales to get gross profit, then subtract operating expenses.[S1]
It is measured before interest and income tax.[S1] Amazon's income statement calls it "Operating income".[S2]
What is net profit?
Net profit, also called net income, is the bottom line. It comes after income tax, and it can be a net loss.[S1]
It also picks up items outside the main business. Interest paid is one, and gains or losses on investments can be another.[S2]
Divide net income by the shares outstanding and you get earnings per share.[S1]
What is cash flow?
An income statement can tell you whether a company made a profit. A cash flow statement can tell you whether it generated cash.[S1]
The statement generally has three parts:[S1]
- Operating activities: cash from running the business, worked out from net income or loss.
- Investing activities: generally, buying or selling long-term assets.
- Financing activities: at Amazon, these lines include borrowing and repaying debt.[S2]
The SEC's guide says cash flows are "related, but not equivalent, to net income".[S1]
Why do they differ? An Amazon example
Amazon's filing shows all of these numbers. Each live figure below comes from the Amazon stock page and shows its own fiscal year.
- Net sales (revenue): $716.9B (FY2025)
- Operating income: $80.0B (FY2025)
- Net income: $77.7B (FY2025)
- Cash from operations: $139.5B (FY2025)
- Purchases of property and equipment: $131.8B (FY2025)
From net sales to operating income. Costs come out here. Cost of sales is mainly the price of the products and shipping, plus some digital content costs.[S2]
From operating income to net income. Items outside operations come in, then tax.
Amazon's "Other income (expense), net" is one such line. The money flow section of its stock page shows that line combined with interest income.
Amazon's FY2025 10-K says the 2025 gain was primarily tied to its investments in Anthropic. These gains add to net income but not to operating income.[S2]
From net income to cash from operations. The cash flow statement starts with net income and adjusts it. Amazon's adjustments include depreciation, stock-based pay and non-operating income.[S2]
Depreciation spreads the cost of wear and tear on assets over the periods they are used.[S1] Amazon's statement also adjusts for changes in inventories, money owed to it and money it owes.[S2]
Cash from operations and spending on assets. Purchases of property and equipment sit under investing activities. So they do not reduce cash from operations.[S2]
Subtracting them gives a version of free cash flow. Amazon defines its own measure using purchases net of proceeds from sales and incentives.[S2]
Non-GAAP measures explains why such a figure needs its definition beside it.
Net income and cash from operations differ at other companies too. Both lists are A–Z, not rankings.
See it in real companies
Net income at companies on Cityfort
5 companies on Cityfort, listed A–Z (not ranked).
From each company's filings, as cited on its Cityfort stock page. These figures change when a stock page is updated.
See it in real companies
Cash from operations at companies on Cityfort
5 companies on Cityfort, listed A–Z (not ranked).
From each company's filings, as cited on its Cityfort stock page. These figures change when a stock page is updated.