There are many interesting data points to be found in the results of Tiffany & Co.
The company beat expectations on revenues and on earnings per share. On the latter measure, the company's $0.21 per share for the quarter easily beat analysts' expectations by $0.05 per share. Another bright point is the company's large share repurchases this year, which I think shareholders will come to appreciate in future years. The not so pretty is that the company's working capital management was less than optimal. Still, I'd hardly say there's cause for alarm. But all of these high-level numerical points are caught in our Fool by Numbers, so I'd like to focus on another part of Tiffany & Co's results that I found interesting -- the company's international operations.
Half of Tiffany's international business comes from Japan, and the company has an extremely strong presence in the country, but so do other luxury retailers such as Cartier, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, and Coach
But the rest of the company's international operations are in areas where the company has plenty of additional room for growth and the performance is impressive. China is certainly one of the areas that should propel Tiffany & Co. for quite some time, and other Southeast Asian countries, Australia, and even parts of Europe hold opportunity for growth. In this part of the business, Tiffany's performance really does sparkle. Outside of Japan, the rest of Asia and the Pacific countries turned in 17% same-store sales growth, and year-to-date same-store sales are up 21%. In Europe, the numbers were in the same ballpark.
Blue Nile
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At the time of publication, Nathan Parmelee owned shares in Blue Nile, but had no financial interest in any of the other companies mentioned. Blue Nile is a Motley Fool Hidden Gems and Motley Fool Rule Breakers selection. The Motley Fool has an ironclad disclosure policy.