Lovisa Holdings Ltd (ASX:LOV) on Wednesday reported a first half profit of $24.8 million, a 22.5% increase over the same period a year earlier.
Lovisa Holdings Ltd posted revenue of $118.6 million in the period. This was 18.9% higher than the same period last year. The company announced a fully franked interim dividend of 13 cents per share, an increase of 30%.
In early Wednesday trading, the Lovisa Holdings Ltd share price has gained 31 cents or 3.95% to $8.15.
Lovisa Holdings Limited is engaged in the retail sale of fashion jewelry and accessories. The Company has over 230 retail stores. Its each store contains an average of over 2,500 product lines. It operates in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa and the United Kingdom, and franchised stores in the Middle East (Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia).
Lovisa Chief Executive Officer Steve Doyle said, “It’s pleasing that the business has been able to maintain the solid start to the year as we continue our global rollout, helping to deliver both sales growth and gross margin expansion, delivering NPAT growth of 23%.
“We continued to expand and optimize our store network to drive growth and performance with a net 31 store increase for the half year. We were also able to continue to invest in new market expansion with our first store opened in the US in November 2017 and the recent opening of our first store in France.’’
Outlook
Lovisa said whilst the result for the half year reflects a strong start to the financial year, in particular in relation to sales and gross margin, it is important to note that Lovisa has a disproportionate mix of EBIT weighted to the first half, which has also been enhanced by the strong performance of the Christmas and Boxing Day sale period.
The company said trading since the end of the half year has been in line with its expectations.
The Lovisa Holdings Ltd share price has gained 18.63% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P/ASX 200 Index has fallen roughly 2.14%. The Lovisa share price has gained 108.96% in the last 12 months
