Do you know what time it is? It's time to check out Movado Group (NYSE: MOV) and see why its first quarter wasn't as slick as one of its trendy timepieces.
How poorly were things ticking along? Well, net sales increased a little less than 4%, and earnings per share decreased by more than 18%. Gross, operating, and net margins all contracted. Furthermore, same-store sales decreased 1.5%. You can get more on the quarter's financial results in our Fool by Numbers report on Movado.
Still, there were a few things to be pleased with; the balance sheet did strengthen, and CEO Efraim Grinberg tried to mitigate some of the dire showing by pointing out that a "shift in the retail calendar" altered some customers' buying patterns.
Should we give management the benefit of the doubt in this case? After all, the company does have some fine luxury watches in its product portfolio, and it licenses some pretty popular brand names -- you can get watches based on the iconic equity of Tommy Hilfiger (NYSE: TOM) and Coach (NYSE: COH), to name just two examples. Plus, Movado expanded its quarterly dividend payment by 33% this past April.
Recently, our own Jeremy MacNealy took a bullish tone on Movado because of comments he heard during a company conference call. I can see where he's coming from -- the plans for enhanced marketing strategies and continued leveraging of the licensing business appeal to me.
But I'm just not enamored with the dragging retail operations and the declining margins. Considering that the stock currently yields just less than 1% and that it has had something of a run-up in the past year, and taking into account the ongoing issues with the company's retail operations, I'd have to label Movado a pass right now. I'd rather wait for a few more quarterly reports to see how the company is progressing -- as well as wait for a pullback in share price -- before seriously thinking about putting any money to work here.
Read on for further Foolishness:
Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns none of the companies mentioned. As of this writing, he was ranked 6,689 out of 29,574 rated investors in Motley Fool CAPS. Don't know what CAPS is? Check it out. The Fool has a disclosure policy.
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