LVMH Shares Rise After Results Show Revenue Growth Continues to Accelerate

   By Joshua Kirby and Cristina Roca 
 

Shares in LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE jumped in early trading Friday after the luxury-goods giant said revenue growth continued to accelerate at the end of 2021, leading to a much higher annual profit.

At 0813 GMT, shares traded 3.4% higher at EUR717.60, having risen as high as EUR733.90 early in the session.

The French conglomerate said Thursday evening that total yearly sales came to 64.22 billion euros ($72.19 billion)--rising 14% organically from EUR53.67 billion in 2019, before the Covid-19 crisis--confirming the company's pandemic recovery.

Analysts had expected total sales of EUR62.51 billion, according to a FactSet-compiled consensus.

In the fourth quarter, revenue was 22% higher than in the same period of 2019, accelerating from an 11% increase the previous quarter. The core fashion-and-leather division again drove growth, booking more than 50% higher revenue over two years, LVMH said.

LVMH's results suggest that the group has room for further recovery, with the selective retail and perfumes-and-cosmetics divisions still lagging behind 2019's results, Bernstein analyst Luca Solca said in a note.

Net profit for the year stood at EUR12.04 billion, almost tripling on year, thanks in part to an operating margin that climbed to 26.7% of revenue.

LVMH said it is confident of maintaining the pace of growth in 2022.

Write to Joshua Kirby at [e-mail]; @joshualeokirby and Cristina Roca at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 28, 2022 03:50 ET (08:50 GMT)

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