TAG Heuer and Hublot maintain sales momentum, push LVMH through five-year market high

There's no sign of the crushing recession being heralded by the international media - at least in the house of LVMH at any rate. In his article earlier today, London-based markets correspondent Simon Kennedy confirmed the further significant growth of the luxury goods giant as it continues on past it's five year market high with stocks trading at €114 as of today, 14th October 2010. This compares nicely to the €68 52-week low of last November, with stocks having rallied almost 70% in that period.

"Luxury-goods giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton said Thursday its third-quarter sales rose 24% as wealthy customers snapped up designer watches and cases of Dom Perignon.

The group said total sales in the quarter were 5.11 billion euros ($7.19 billion), compared to €4.14 billion a year earlier.

LVMH said the performance confirmed the trends seen in the first half of the year, with very strong growth across Asia, Europe and the U.S. Sales were also stronger across every division, it added.

Champagne sales in the latest quarter showed “good return of consumer demand,” and contributed to a 24% rise in sales of wines and spirits to €846 million.

The company, which owns the Dom Perignon, Moet & Chandon and Krug champagne brands, among others, also said that demand for Hennessy cognac had continued to accelerate in Asia.

The strongest revenue growth was in the group’s luxury watches and jewelry business, where sales rose over 30% to €244 million in the third quarter, helped by the launch of new Tag Heuer models and increased market share for Hublot.

Overall sales were ahead of the €4.83 billion consensus forecast.

“On balance this was a very strong quarter, that should be good enough to keep the upward momentum in LVMH shares, despite their recent strong run,” said Credit Suisse analyst Rogerio Fujimori.

Among its other divisions, LVMH said fashion and leather-goods sales rose 26% to 1.95 billion euros as momentum returned to its Fendi and Donna Karan brands.

The group didn’t provide a detailed outlook, but said performance in the first nine months of the year “has confirmed its confidence for 2010.”