Burberry third-quarter sales exceed estimates

The largest luxury-goods maker in the United Kingdom – Burberry Group Plc announced that its quarterly revenue has beaten the analysts forecasts, no matter that customers spend more money shopping online. The companys forecasts repeat the ones from November 2013. Burberry said to be targeting a “modest” increase in full-year retail/wholesale operating profit margin.

The company explained that its retail revenue increased by 14% to 528 million pounds in the three months ended on December the 31st, 2013. The shares of the company also rose as much as 7.2%, which is their largest jump since July 2013. According to the median of 12 estimates compiled by Bloomberg, the analysts estimate was 518 million pounds.

The Chief Executive Officer to-be of Burberry – Angela Ahrendts made a statement, saying: “The macro environment remains uncertain. At current levels, exchange rates will be a significant headwind in the second half and beyond.” Mrs. Ahrendts is expected to join the team of the company later this year. She is also going to be succeeded as Chief Executive Officer by Christopher Bailey, who is the creative director of Burberry.

At the same time, the luxury-goods sector progresses with the weakest pace in four years. It has expanded with 2% only, due to unfavorable currency swings weighed on growth and demand softened in China. One of the analysts working for Cantor Firzgerald commented Burberrys performance: “This is a strong performance in a slowing sector.”

Burberry Group Plc said that its outperformance was benefited from investments in areas such as service and collect-in-store and this is what compensated for weak customer numbers in its stores. Half of the so-called mainline growth was reached thanks to outerwear and large leather goods sales. As one of the analysts working for Nomura – Frazer Ramzan – said, Burberry is currently “achieving strong returns on its digitally focused marketing, whilst supply-chain improvements are enabling competitive service levels on its digital/online business.”

According to CNN Money, the current share price of Burberry Group Plc Is 1.86% up, and its one-year return rate is 4.02% down. The 21 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Burberry Group Plc have a median target of 54.37, with a high estimate of 71.66 and a low estimate of 48.27. The median estimate represents a +12.06% increase from the last price of 48.52.