Tiffany climbed the most in more than seven years in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Net income declined to $118.3 million, or 89 cents a share, for the three months through Jan. 31, from $140.5 million, or $1.02, a year earlier, New York-based Tiffany said today. Profit before one-time items including the cost of discontinuing some watch styles beat analysts' estimates, and the company increased its annual profit forecast after an inventory-valuation change.
The jeweler's revenue advanced 9.8 percent to $1.05 billion, with international sales jumping by a fifth. Growing sales in Asia and Europe are helping the jeweler overcome a slowdown in U.S. spending. American consumers have been discouraged by the worst housing slump in a quarter century and job cuts.
``With about 40 percent of sales from international markets, it offers some downside protection from the weak economic trends,'' Kristine Koerber, an analyst with JMP Securities LLC in San Francisco, wrote in a March 19 report. She rates the shares ``market outperform.''
Before one-time items including the 9 cent per-share cost of discontinuing some watch styles, Tiffany earned $1.27 cents a share. Twelve analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated average profit of $1.21, before one-time items.
Excluding the cost of the move to stop selling some watches, gross margin widened for the quarter, the company said.
Net earnings for the year that began Feb. 1 will be $2.75 to $2.85 a share, after a change in the method the company uses for valuing inventories. The company forecast $2.50 to $2.55 on Feb. 8. Seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimate net income of $2.54, on average.
Tiffany jumped $5.28, or 14 percent, to $43.88 at 10:01 a.m., the biggest gain since January 2001. The stock rose 17 percent last year.
The company had 184 stores and boutiques, including 70 in the U.S. on Jan. 31.
Source: bloomberg
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