Tiffany & Co. (TIF) is scheduled to post its first quarter 2010 results before the opening bell on Thursday.
Tiffany is well-positioned to deliver robust sales and earnings growth by leveraging capital investments made in the past several years. The company holds a significant position in the world jewelry market and is poised to benefit from its enhanced geographic reach.
With signs of improvement in the retail environment, Tiffany has boosted its store expansion program. The company has also been concentrating more on smaller size store formats that offer select collections of lower priced higher-margin products.
Tiffany’s sales were hit hard by the recent economic downturn, when consumers lowered their discretionary spends.
The current Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter 2010 is 36 cents, which has remained unchanged in the last 30 days with 1 out of 18 analysts raising expectations and 1 cutting back on forecasts. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate represents a year-over-year growth of 80%.
For fiscal 2010, the Zacks Consensus Estimate is $2.49 per share, which represents a 22.1% increase over fiscal 2009 earnings. The Zacks Consensus Estimate increased to $2.50 but again fell by a penny over the past month. During this time, 3 analysts lowered projections while one moved in the opposite direction.
With respect to earnings surprises, Tiffany has over the last four quarters ranged from a negative 4.4% to a positive 43.5%. The average remained positive at 17.2%. This suggests that Tiffany has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate by an average of 17.2% in the last four quarters.
Tiffany’s shares are maintaining a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term ‘Hold’ recommendation. Our long-term recommendation for the stock also remains ‘Neutral’.
Read the full analyst report on “TIF”
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