Tiffany Meets 4th-Quarter Earnings Forecast

Tiffany & Co. reported fourth-quarter earnings of $84.7 million, or 56 cents a share, virtually unchanged from a year ago, as a slowing U.S. economy curbed consumers’ appetite for luxury goods in the critical holiday selling season. The jewelry retailer’s sales rose 2.3% to $576.4 million. Tiffany’s results met analysts’ forecasts that had been lowered from 64 cents in January, following Tiffany’s guidance. Tiffany said its sales at stores open at least a year, a key measure of a retailer’s performance, fell 3%. In the year-ago period, same-store sales surged 27%. The company said it remains comfortable with analysts’ earnings expectations for the first two quarters of 2001 and the full year. The fact that Tiffany did not lower its earnings forecast despite the softening economy helped buoy the company’s shares, analysts said. Its shares, which have outperformed the Standard & Poor’s index by about 18% in the last 52 weeks, closed up 14 cents at $31.25 on the NYSE.