Russ Greenberg
Analyst · Raymond James
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our 2019 third quarter conference call. We will, again, proceed with our standard format. After I review our financial performance, Jean Madar, our Chairman and CEO, will provide an overview of our business and share some future plans. Then we will take your questions. Before proceeding further, I want to remind listeners that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements, which involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from projected results. These factors include, but are not limited to the risks and uncertainties discussed under the heading Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors in our annual report on Form 10-K and the reports we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not intend to and undertake no duty to update the information discussed. When we refer to our European-based operations, we are primarily talking about sales of Prestige Fragrance products, conducted through our 73% owned French subsidiary, Interparfums SA. When we discuss our United States-based operations, we are primarily referring to sales of Prestige Fragrance products conducted through our wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries. The average dollar-euro exchange rate for the 2019 third quarter is 1.11 compared to 1.16 in the third quarter of 2018. For the 9 months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, the dollar-euro exchange rate was 1.12 and 1.19, respectively. As a reminder, a strong U.S. dollar has a negative impact on our net sales, but a positive effect on our gross profit margin. Because over 45% of net sales of our European operations are denominated in dollars while almost all costs within our European operations are incurred in euro. With regard to the current third quarter as compared to last year's, net sales were $191.2 million, up 7.9% from $177.2 million. At comparable foreign currency exchange rates, net sales increased 9.7%. Net sales by European-based operations rose 4.2% to $143.6 million from $137.8 million. Net sales by U.S.-based operations rose 20.7% to $47.6 million from $39.4 million. Gross margin was 59.8% compared to 61.6%. SG&A expenses as a percentage of net sales were 40.7% compared to 41.9%. Operating income increased 4.8% to $36.6 million from $35 million, and operating margin was 19.2% compared to 19.7%. Our effective income tax rate came in at 27.4% as compared to last year’s third quarter at 28.6%. Net income attributable to Inter Parfums, Inc. increased 10.1% to $20.8 million from $18.9 million. And net income per diluted share rose 10% to $0.66 from $0.60. Thus, through the first nine months of 2019, and net sales increased 7.5% to $535.7 million as compared to $498.3 million for corresponding period of the prior year. At comparable foreign currency exchange rates, net sales increased 10.2% for the nine month period. Net income attributable to Inter Parfums, Inc. rose to $52.1 million, an increase of 13.8% compared to $45.7 million in the same period last year. While net income per diluted share was up 13.1% to 1.64, to a $1.64 from $1.45. We have reviewed brand highlights in our press release and in the 10-Q that we filed yesterday so I will move on to discuss some profitability inputs. As you probably know, our third quarter is historically our strongest quarter for sales due to holiday season shipments. However, more often than not, our consolidated gross margin contracts a little bit in the third quarter due to the large proportion of holiday gift sets that are in our sales mix. For European operations, gross profit margin was 62.8% in the current third quarter compared to last year’s 64.9%. The cost of sales of our new Montblanc Explorer product line is higher than typical, and those costs offset much of the gross margin benefit that we saw because of the stronger dollar. For U.S. operations, gross margin was 51% as compared to 49.9% in last year’s third quarter, with the increase primarily attributable to greater sales of Prestige Fragrances under license. As we reported in prior quarters, operating leverage is boosting our profitability. The third quarter is no exception as a 4.9% increase in SG&A expenses accompanied a 7.9% increase in net sales. In the third quarter, it was European operations that reap the benefit from SG&A operating leverage as its net sales increased 4.2% while SG&A expenses rose only 0.3% of 1%. So in the current quarter, SG&A for our European operations came in at 42.1% of net sales as compared to 43.8% in last year's third quarter. With regard to U.S. operations, SG&A expense rose 25% from last year's third quarter and represented 36.3% of net sales, up from 35.1% in last year's third quarter. The increase is directly associated with greater sales of licensed products. Although, the increase in SG&A expense outpaced sales growth in the third quarter. Through the third, through the first 9 months, SG&A was 40.0% of net sales compared to 40.9% for that corresponding period in 2018. Promotion and advertising included in SG&A expense aggregated $28.7 million or 17.3% of net sales as compared to $27.9 million or 17.5% of net sales in last year's third quarter. As usual, you can expect a big fourth quarter spend on promotion and advertising programs. So that on a full year basis, promotion and advertising should aggregate approximately 21% of 2019 net sales, as has been the case in the past 2 years. Our financial position remains extremely strong. We closed the third quarter with working capital of $375 million, including approximately $192 million in cash and cash equivalents as well as short-term investments, a working capital ratio of over 3.2:1 and just $10.6 million of long-term debt. Our solid balance sheet and favorable outlook were, once again, the reasons why our board saw fit to again increase the dividend rate, this time by 20%. Starting in 2020, our quarterly dividend will increase to $0.33, bringing the annual rate to $1.32 per share. We also raised our earnings guidance for 2019 to $1.90 per diluted share from our previous target of $1.88. This is the result of improved controls over expenses in general and leveraging sales gains over fixed expenses. As we reported yesterday, due to the stronger dollar this year versus last year, 2019 net sales are expected to come in as previously forecast at approximately $712 million. Guidance assumes the dollar remains at current levels. And finally, I just want you to know that we will be releasing our initial 2020 guidance on Wednesday, November 20, after the close of the market. Jean, please continue.