Too often, investors focus on figures that supposedly offer insight into a company's performance without shedding light on how it actually makes its money.

Graphic-design and printing-services company VistaPrint is a case in point. Investors have pushed the shares down over the past month because the company's most recent quarterly results raised concerns about slowing revenue growth and narrowing gross margins.

But on that score, investors may be worrying about the wrong issue: VistaPrint appears to generate a big portion of its operating profit from fees it receives for 'referring' customers to outside parties that 'offer' rewards programs.

That calls into question whether the stock, even after its recent fall, deserves to trade at 20 times expected earnings for the fiscal year ending in June 2009, according to estimates from Thomson Reuters.

VistaPrint's customers often don't realize that they are purchasing the referred services. The services are offered through a screen that pops up at the end of the VistaPrint buying process. That screen purports to offer the customer $10 off their most recent purchase. But customers who sign up for this are actually enrolling in a program that charges them $14.95 a month for what are supposed to be discounts on amusement parks and movies, among other things.

In a statement, VistaPrint said, 'We don't 'trick' our customers into a service that they don't want. Customers are smarter than that. We go to great lengths to ensure that only those customers that want that particular service or offering pay for that service or offering.'

The company declined to say what portion of operating profit comes from referral fees, adding that it doesn't give product-by-product breakdowns.

In regulatory filings, VistaPrint acknowledges the risk associated with referral fees. The company said some of the programs that pay it referral fees 'have been the subject of consumer complaints and litigation alleging that their enrollment and billing practices violate various consumer protection laws or are otherwise deceptive.'

A careful read of the fine print in VistaPrint's financial filings shows that referral fees are an important driver of profit.

In the fiscal quarter ended March 31, for example, VistaPrint said 6.7% of its $106 million in revenue came from referral fees. Such disclosures about referral fees came only after prodding last year from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But the SEC didn't force VistaPrint to disclose how this revenue affected operating profit. To figure that out, one has to read lower in the footnote, which says that referral-fee revenues 'have minimal corresponding direct cost of revenue.'

In other words, they are pretty much pure profit. But assuming, say, that the company racked up an 80% margin on these revenues, the fees would have accounted for about half of operating profit in the most recent quarter.

The contribution, though, could be even higher, given VistaPrint's own description of the costs tied to them as 'minimal.' Analysts note that referral revenue is declining as an overall slice of the business. But it still makes up a big piece of profit.

Until that changes, investors should remember that Vista-Print prints business cards -- not money.

J.P. Morgan's Dimon

Warns on Credit Cards

One lesson investors have learned by watching J.P. Morgan Chase manage its way through the credit-market mess is that if this bank is worried, others should be terrified. If J.P. Morgan expects losses, they will likely be worse at its rivals.

Chief Executive James Dimon recently sounded a warning about credit cards. With the second quarter nearly two-thirds over and earnings preannouncement season coming up, history could repeat itself quickly.

Last month, J.P. Morgan wrote off 4.5% of its credit-card loans, up from 4.35% in March and 3.84% a year earlier. Mr. Dimon said that upward trend will continue, with losses on track to surpass 5% this year and 6% in 2009 -- potentially a nearly 50% rise from last year's levels.

When it comes to credit-card losses, other big banks appear to have more to worry about than J.P. Morgan. Citigroup's April loss rate was 5.74%, compared with 5.37% in March and 4.09% last spring. Bank of America Corp. has the highest loss rate: 6.88% last month, versus 6.52% a month earlier and 5.39% a year earlier.

投资者往往太过看重公司的业绩数据，试图从中洞察公司营运表现究竟如何，殊不知这些数字并不能告诉人们这家企业到底是怎么把钱挣到手的。

制图设计及印刷服务公司VistaPrint就是这样一个例子。投资者在过去一个月中一直在打压该股，只因其最近财季的盈利情况令人担心该公司收入增长放缓、毛利降低。

但是究其原因，投资者可能担心的不是地方。VistaPrint营运利润中的很大一部分似乎来自于把客户推荐给提供其他项目的外部企业而从中赚取的“过手推荐费”。

这就引发了这样一个问题：即便该股近期连连下挫，但其市盈率是否值得保持在20倍的水平；这一数据是基于汤姆森-路透(Thomson Reuters Corp.)对该公司截至2009年6月财年的盈利预期所做的计算。

VistaPrint的客户往往意识不到他们买了转手服务。他们在VistaPrint买进流程最后弹出的屏幕中选择了该服务。这个页面声称自己给客户刚刚购买的服务折去了10美元。但那些签单的客户实际上却是注册了一个每月向他们收费14.95美元的项目，注册这个项目可以在他们去游乐园、看电影或参加其他活动时享受到折扣价。

VistaPrint在一份声明表示，公司并没有欺骗客户接受他们不想接受的服务；客户是更聪明的一群人；公司付出了极大的努力，为的就是确保只有那些想接受、或愿意掏钱的客户才会购买这些它们。

公司拒绝透露营运利润中有多大比重来自这种“过手推荐费”，并表示不提供各种产品的细分数据。

VistaPrint在提交给监管机构的文件中承认这种收入蕴含着风险。公司表示，部分付给自己推荐费的项目遭到了消费者的投诉，甚至吃了官司；消费者声称公司让他们参加这样的项目并为此付费实际上违反了多部消费者保护法的规定，或直指这其中存在欺骗行为。

通过仔细研读VistaPrint财务报告中的繁杂描述就不难发现，此类收入在推高公司收益方面发挥了重要作用。

举例来说，VistaPrint表示在截至3月31日的财季中，其1.06亿美元的总收入中有6.7%是这种推荐费所得。在去年美国证券交易委员会(SEC)的敦促下，公司才同意对此项收入情况进行披露。

但SEC并没有强制要求VistaPrint说明这类收入对营运利润有何影响。要想弄明白这一点，人们就必须再去研究下方的脚注，上面说推荐费收入的直接成本极低。

换句话说，这项收入中很大一部分就是纯利润。但是，如果假设推荐费收入的利润率是80%，那么此项盈利就占到了公司最近财季总利润的将近一半。

然而，考虑到VistaPrint自己说这项业务的成本“极低”，那么它对公司盈利的贡献怕是要更多。分析师指出，推荐费收入随着整体业务的下滑也在减少，但它在整体盈利中仍占到了很大一部分。

在这种情况发生改变前，投资者都应该记住Vista-Print的业务是印名片，而不是钞票。

摩根大通董事长戴蒙为信用卡业务敲警钟

投资者通过观察摩根大通(J.P. Morgan Chase)在应对信贷危机时的所作所为就应该学会一点，如果一家银行令人担心，那么别的银行也好不到哪里去。如果摩根大通预计会发生亏损，那么它的竞争对手表现可能会更糟糕。

摩根大通董事长詹姆斯•戴蒙(James Dimon)日前就对信用卡业务发出了警告。由于第二财季已过去了三分之二，且收益预告季节即将拉开大幕，历史可能很快又要重演了。

摩根大通上个月冲减了4.5%的信用卡贷款，冲减比例较3月的4.35%以及上年同期的3.84%均有所上升。戴蒙表示，这一上升趋势还将继续下去，预计今明两年的损失将分别超过5%和6%，这和去年时比起来几乎增长了50%。

其实就信用卡业务的亏损而言，其他大型银行似乎比摩根大通更挠头。花旗(Citigroup) 4月份的亏损率为5.74%，而3月份及上年同期时分别为5.37%和4.09%。上个月美国银行(Bank of America Corp.) 4月份的信用卡业务亏损率成了业界“第一”，高达6.88%，而3月份和上年同期分别为6.52%和5.39%。