One of my measures is sales. It is rather important for me.
With sales you cannot hide, tweak or twiddle the number. Either you sold this or not. Yes you can defer, but at the end of the day you either sold something or not.
A company that has increasing sales, but decreasing profits deserves a second look. However a company that has increasing EPS and decreasing sales is a warning sign.
Think of it as follows. You are company and your sales are going down, and in response you start cutting staff boosting EPS. Though is that a good idea for the long term health of the company? Answer no...
For the financials I am looking at sales and cost of sales. For some companies it looks good and others not so good.