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Tiffany & Co. (TIF), Burberry Group plc (BRBY), LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA(ADR) (LVMUY): Forecasting the Luxury Goods Industry

Published on July 15, 2013 at 11:00 am by The Motley Fool in News

Burberry Group plcThe luxury goods sector is growing fast, hand-in-hand with the growth of wealth in the developing world. Countries such as Russia,China and Brazil are creating thousands of new rich families every year. One of the many direct results of this trend — which could last many decades — has been the tremendous growth of high-end-luxury companies. Here I will try to forecast next quarter’s results for my top three luxury goods companies.

British chic-style

Burberry Group plc (LON:BRBY) has been an incredibly successful story so far. The company has been able to reshape itself and become a symbol of British chic-elegance. The numbers speak for themselves. Last quarter’s organic growth was 10% year-over-year with retail same-store-sales — the most relevant performance figure for the industry — up by 8%.

For the coming quarter, I expect organic growth to come as high as 5% year-over-year and retail same-store-sales to come up by 6%. The reason to expect overall growth coming at just 5% is that I expect a decline in wholesale. Regardless, the company remains extremely healthy.

Most importantly, there is huge room for margin improvement. While a company like Gucci has operating margins of 31%, Burberry has operating margins of 17%. The reason is that Burberry Group plc (LON:BRBY)’s operating expenses have remained high due to the upcoming changes regarding its beauty division and its business in Japan.

Trading at 2013 20 times P/E and paying a 2.95% cash dividend yield, I love this British chic-style company.

The world-wide king of luxury

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA(ADR) (OTCMKTS:LVMUY), the always expanding multi-brand wine and spirits to bags and clothing holding, is my favorite large capitalization luxury goods company. The company’s last quarter was a very healthy one. The group’s organic growth was 10% year-over-year with fashion and leather (35% of sales and 53% of the company’s profits) growing by 5%. Other parts of the group showed faster growth: Sephora, Bulgari jewelry, Dior perfumes and Hennessy are growing seriously fast.

I expect this luxury giant to show good first half 2013 results. I would expect 8% year-over-year organic growth (4% year-over-year for fashion and leather) and a broadly stable 21% operating margin.

Even when LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA(ADR) (OTCMKTS:LVMUY)’s market price ultimately depends on LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA(ADR) (OTCMKTS:LVMUY)’s top-line momentum in Asia (where the brand is not opening additional stores in order to protect the brand’s exclusivity), I think the company is always a great asset to own. LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA(ADR) (OTCMKTS:LVMUY) trades at 2013 17 times P/E and pays a 2% cash dividend yield.


An American classic

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) is one of the most attractive longer-term opportunities in the luxury space. In the recent quarters, Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) has suffered meaningful headwinds from rising commodity costs but its outlook is improving. Recent signs of improving jewelry demand along with easing commodity costs will help Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF)’s earnings come back to high growth.
Last quarter’s same-store-sales are evidence of the coming improvement. The company was able to show investors 8% year-over-year growth (versus a consensus figure for a 1.6% gain). Same-store-sales came especially high in Japan (21% year-over-year) and Asia-Pacific (9% year-over-year). Meanwhile, the Europe and Americas regions (12% and 49% of total revenues) showed same-store-sales increases of 6% year-over-year and 3% year-over-year, respectively.
For the next quarter, I expect the company to show 9% year-over-year same-store-sales growth and overall top-line growth of 8%. Meanwhile, in the long term, I would expect the company to grow overall sales by 9.5% year-over-year (5% from new store openings and 4.5% from same-store-sales growth). All this should happen as operating margins grow to over 20% from the current 18.5%, as the company shifts its sales to higher margin regions and as commodity costs pressures recede.
Trading at 2013 22.6 times P/E and paying a 1.85% cash dividend yield, I think Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF) is one of the greatest assets within the luxury goods space.

Foolish conclusion

The three companies named above all operate within a sector that is growing organically at a 9% year-over-year rate. With US consumers recovering from the crisis and the Asian markets still growing, I think you should follow all these companies closely, expecting growth and margin expansion.

The article Forecasting the Luxury Goods Industry originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Federico Zaldua.

Federico Zaldua has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Federico is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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