On Tuesday, Tiffany & Co unveiled the results of its performance in the 4th quarter of the fiscal year 2011. Financial results for this period were worse than projected and apparently terminated the "good innings" of five quarters, during which Tiffany’s results were invariably higher than forecasts.
Such a kind of news would have triggered a drop in stock prices for most jewelers, but Tiffany’s shares only went up in price by $ 3.02 (+4.4%) to $ 71.70 at the start of the day on the New York Stock Exchange, reaching $ 73.27 (+6.9 %) upon closing. This was facilitated by a timely announced Tiffany’s forecast for 2012 pointing out increased profit. According to the jeweler, its gross profit will rise by 10% due to higher sales in the Asia-Pacific region, North and South Americas.
Tiffany posted $ 178.4 million as net income in the 4th quarter ended January 31, 2011, or $ 1.39 per share, which is worse performance compared on a year-on-year basis with 2010, when the company earned $ 181.2 million in profits, or $ 1.41 per share.
The best sale results were demonstrated by Asia-Pacific, where the boost reached 19% coming up to $ 225 million. The second largest leader by sales was Japan, where sales growth was 12%, and its value reached $ 204 million.
More modest, but nevertheless stable results were shown by Americas. Sales there increased by 5% to $ 605 million, while European sales went up by mere 3% to $ 142 million.
Analysts were right predicting a rise in Tiffany’s gross profit in Q4 by nearly 8% to $ 1.19 billion, while the jeweler’s gross profit for the whole year totaled $ 3.64 billion, up 17% compared with 2010 ($ 3.09 billion). Net income for the past year reached $ 439.2 million, or $ 3.40 per share.
Tiffany’s CEO Michael Kowalski said in a statement that in the current quarter of the new fiscal year, which included St. Valentine's Day, sales were tracking in line with the company’s expectations.
Olga Patseva, Editor in Chief of the American Bureau, Rough&Polished
