Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) stock rose 3.2% on 4th June, 2019 (as of 12:27 pm GMT-4; Source: Google finance) driven by a dividend hike. TIF has reported the net income for the quarter to $125.2 million from $142.3 million in the year-ago period. TIF has opened two Company-operated stores in the first quarter, had closed two stores and relocated two stores. At April 30, 2019, the Company was operating 321 stores (124 in the Americas, 89 in Asia-Pacific, 56 in Japan, 47 in Europe and five in the UAE), compared to 314 stores a year ago (123 in the Americas, 87 in Asia-Pacific, 54 in Japan, 46 in Europe and four in the UAE). At April 30, 2019, cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $763 million.
TIF in the first quarter of FY 19 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.03, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.01, as per the FactSet consensus. The company had reported 3 percent fall in the adjusted revenue to $1 billion in the first quarter of FY 19, missing the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $1.01 billion. The 5% drop in same-store sales missed expectations of a 1.9% decline. Within regions, same-store sales in Asia-Pacific fell 5%, missing expectations of a 3.0% decline; in Europe fell 7% versus expectations of a 0.9% decline; in Japan dropped 4% to miss expectations of a 1.5% fall.
For FY19, the company expects the net sales to increase by a low-single-digit percentage from last year, reflecting an increase of the same degree in comparable sales, while the FactSet sales consensus is of $4.97 billion implies 4.6% growth. Earnings, on a per share basis, are projected to grow by a low-to-mid-single-digit percentage. The company expects the capital expenditures to be $350 million.
Meanwhile, earnings a seen declining in the second quarter, owing to the continuing pressure on sales from lower foreign tourist spending, difficult comparisons to the year-ago period and sales deleverage on fixed costs.
Additionally, TIF has declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.58 per share, which represents a 5% increase, and will be paid on July 10 to shareholders of record on June 20. The Company has repurchased approximately 271,000 shares of its common Share in the first quarter at a total cost of $25.4 million and an average cost of approximately $94 per share.