Profitability
Cost of revenue
What it is
What it cost to produce or deliver what was sold: raw materials, manufacturing, production wages, server hosting for a software company.
How to read it
Against revenue, it gives the gross margin. Costs rising more slowly than sales signal efficiency gains or pricing power.
What it does not tell you
The line between "direct cost" and "overhead" is partly an accounting choice, which limits comparisons outside a single sector.
Other measures — Profitability
Educational content. Polaris is not a registered investment adviser and makes no recommendation.