BVO - Customers kept buying more jewelry in those iconic blue boxes, but earnings at Tiffany just didn't have as much sparkle as investors had hoped. They brushed aside the strong sales momentum that helped Tiffany buck the trend during the holidays. And those sales would've been much stronger than the reported five percent were it not for the strong dollar.Margins expanded, and the company would've produced a profit had it not lost an arbitration case to Swatch for which it paid $450 million. That's more than it earned in all of last year.
KeyBanc analyst Edward Yruma took the results in stride, saying, "While estimates came in slightly below expectations, the company had solid top-line trends and continued margin expansion.... We think that the company has again guided conservatively." Tiffany plans to keep expanding globally with nine new outlets abroad and four more for the Americas. |
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