Whether sales or profits matter depend on your perspective. I think revenue is a better guide than either. Profit is really susceptible to distortion based on

Whether sales or profits matter depend on your perspective. I think revenue is a better guide than either. Profit is really susceptible to distortion based on reporting. What exactly are you counting as costs? Do you include investments in the future? That's really a business choice, and it doesn't necessarily mean much. At the end of the day, it's only the shareholders that really care about that profit. As a customer, it doesn't really matter whether that money ends up at the company or its contractors - you're paying either way. As an investor, you (eventually) care about profit. If you're just trying to understand what the customers value enough to spend money on, revenue is a better guide.