Rachel Schacter
Analyst · ICR. Please go ahead, ma'am
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. With me on the call is Efraim Grinberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Rick Coté, President, Chief Operating Officer; and Sallie DeMarsilis, Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I would like to remind you of the company's Safe Harbor language, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. The statements contained in this conference call, which are not historical facts, may be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual future results may differ materially from those suggested in such statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, all of which are described in the company's filings with the SEC, which includes today's press release. If any non-GAAP financial measure is used on this call, our presentation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure to this non-GAAP financial measure will be provided as supplemental financial information in our press release. Now I would like to turn the call over to Rick Coté, President and Chief Operating Officer of Movado Group.
Richard J. Coté: Thanks, Rachel. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our conference call. We're very pleased with our strong third quarter and 9-month results, which continued our strong performance from the past 15 months -- 15 quarters. Our consistent strength demonstrates the ongoing success of our strategies that focus on capitalizing on the unique aesthetic of our brands with compelling product offering while maximizing our world-class operating platform to deliver sustained profitable growth. Our financial results were very strong in the third quarter evidenced by our 18.4% sales growth fueled by double-digit growth in our largest businesses: Movado, our licensed brands and company outlet stores. Overall, we continue to see broad-based strength across our business with strong consumer demand and customer sell-through. Operating income was $34.1 million, an increase of 21.8% from the adjusted $28 million reported in the prior period. This improved level of operating income was driven by sales growth and leveraging of operating expenses that more than offset the planned reduction in gross margin percent. Earnings per share came in at $0.89, an increase of 33% from the adjusted $0.67 reported in the prior period. For the 9 months ended October 31, 2013, our performance was also very strong with net sales increasing 14.7% or 14.1% on a constant dollar basis and adjusted operating income increasing 29% to $61.1 million from $47.2 million in the prior period. With this improved financial performance, we are pleased to announce updated guidance with sales planned at the high-end of our previous range and an increase in our full year operating income guidance. We now anticipate sales growth of approximately 14% for the full year and operating income growth of approximately 26%. This will translate to earnings per share consistent with our previous guidance as our tax rate for the year will increase to approximately 30% from our planned 28% rate. Our balance sheet remains strong with a net cash position of $163 million supported by strong, consistent cash flow from operations and shareholders' equity increasing to $460 million. We are pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has approved another quarterly dividend, declaring an $0.08 dividend as per this morning's press release. Now let me briefly discuss some global trends and provide some specific brand highlights for the quarter. From a global perspective, the watch category continues to perform well, and we continue to experience strong sell-through performance across our retail partners. From an economic perspective, we continue to anticipate moderate growth in North America, modest growth in Northern Europe, some stabilization in Southern Europe, solid growth in South America, despite importation complexities and conservative growth in Asia. From a brand perspective, the execution of our Movado brand strategy continues to produce particularly strong results. Globally, accessible luxury sales grew 14% in the third quarter and 17% for the first 9 months of fiscal 2014, as compared to the same periods last year. Our Movado brand in the United States continues to hold the leading market share position in our key price points of $500 to $1,500 and a strong market position in the $1,500 to $3,000 price segment. Additionally, Movado continues to outpace the market and increase its market share in total in the $300 to $3,000 price segment and in virtually every category within this segment. Indicative of our market share growth in the United States, for the 12-month period ending September 30, 2013, Movado has increased its share of market in the $300 to $3,000 price category, outperforming our competitive set by a 11 percentage points. The overall category has grown 3%, while Movado has grown 14%. Product segmentation and our strategy to offer compelling product at key price points continues to help drive our growth. Great performers in the third quarter included ceramic and steel Cerena with diamonds for women, and in the men's category, our Classic Museum, Sports Museum bracelet and Sapphire product offerings. Our advertised product focus for the holiday season includes the new Museum Thin Classic collection, the SE Pilot, and updated versions of Cerena and Black PVD and black ceramic. Movado Bold, part of our Swiss trend pillar, is still achieving expectations. Strategically limited to approximately 700 doors worldwide, Bold continues to add a fresh, younger perspective to Movado. Bold is also well-positioned to continue bringing the consumer-desired newness to the market with new products such as Bold bangles starting at $395, the new Bold ceramic starting at $795 and Bold with diamonds priced at $1,395 and $1,495. We kicked off the holiday season with high impact 4-page advertising in November issues of leading lifestyle and fashion magazines along with 4 full-page color ads in the New York Times and New York Post. Starting December 2, we will launch 3 new TV commercials on top national cable networks. We continue to use digital and social media to reach new consumers and keep our enthusiastic fan base up-to-date with the world of Movado. Great product, along with a focused omni-channel marketing program continues to help drive our strong Movado brand sales performance. ESQ Movado continues to compete in the $150 to $595 price range with products that brings Swiss design and quality to the market. Our new product collections for this holiday season include line extensions of the Mesh bracelets in Capital, new diamond pieces in Origin and both round and rectangular cases in the new Classica and Status collections. ESQ One, an eye-catching watch of unisex appeal, that's cool, colorful, fashionable and fun, allows us to offer fashion on a silicon strap with a Swiss Quartz Movement at $150 retail. Take a look at the new ESQ One video on movado.com starring YouTube artist, Jonathan Mann. Our luxury category, which represents almost 6% of our total sales, slightly increased from the prior year period. In the third quarter, we were anniversary-ing the major launch of our new Onde and X-1 models last year. In Ebel, we continue to focus on our key markets with our new and distinctive Onde and X-1 collections, along with Ebel's core collection comprising the Wave, Beluga and Brasilia models. In Concord, we continue to focus on the Middle East market with the reintroduction of Saratoga, which was launched in the second half last year. Our licensed brand division continues to perform extremely well. In the third quarter, the licensed brand global team grew sales an impressive 27.5% and 17.8% for the first 9 months of the year as compared to the same periods last year. Led by the repositioning of Coach watches and the continued strong launch of Scuderia Ferrari watches. Growth in our licensed brand division is being driven by innovative product designs at key price points that are resonating well with consumers. Some of the leading product performers for licensed brands during the third quarter were: the Coach Tristen and Boyfriend mini product offerings, the Tommy Hilfiger Windsurf and Ladies Tribeca [ph] models, the Hugo Boss Aeroliner and Ultra Slim watches, the Juicy Pedigree and Jetsetter lines and the Lacoste Borneo and Valencia collections. We have executed at retail our Coach watch repositioning as fashionable modern classics, offering the quality and authenticity inherent in Coach, with an improved price value proposition. With this repositioning, we will be expanding distribution globally and have expanded in to 300 new doors already this season. Coach watches at retail are trending at 25%-plus in sales and helping drive this growth, you see addition of 150 new styles, new fixtures, packaging and a strong print and digital campaign. We are now on our eighth month of the initial rollout of the Scuderia Ferrari brand globally, and we continue to be very pleased with the initial sell-through results. Our core product offerings range in price from $125 to $695 and we have opened approximately 2,000 of the planned 2,300 doors this year. Our outlet retail division remains an important contributor to our business from both the sales and profitability perspective. Sales in the third quarter grew 14% with 10% comp store sales growth. And for the first 9 months, sales are 7.5% above the same period last year. We are pleased to announce the opening of our 35th outlet store on November 21, at National Harbor, just outside Washington, D.C. The greater emphasis we have placed on branding and customer service at our existing stores has helped fuel sales conversion and profitability. We remain excited that the initiatives we have been diligently working on have succeeded in creating momentum in our business. We believe our combination of powerful brands, world-class infrastructure and our talented global management team position us to continue the path of above-average sales and profit growth. During this important holiday season and into next year, we plan to build on these initiatives. We will continue to refine our product lines and introduce more frequent and focused innovation, maintain consumer excitement and further improve our competitive positioning. We look forward to the exciting plans we have in place for driving sustainable, profitable growth for the foreseeable future. We believe that the breadth and depth of our more focused product offering supported by high impact marketing on television, in print and digitally will all contribute to strong continued sell-through and ongoing consumer demand. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Sallie to discuss our financial results and guidance.