UPDATE: Tiffany Posts Upbeat Q1 Profit, Lifts Outlook

Tiffany & Co

reported a rise in its first-quarter earnings and raised its forecast. Tiffany's quarterly earnings surged to $126 million, or $0.97 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $84 million, or $0.65 per share. Its sales climbed 13% to $1.0 billion, while comparable store sales surged 11%. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.77 per share on sales of $954 million. In the Americas region, Tiffany's total sales gained 8% to $439 million, while sales in the Asia-Pacific region jumped 17% to $261 million. In Japan, total sales increased 20% to $174 million, while sales in Europe climbed 9% to $101 million. Tiffany now expects FY15 earnings of $4.15 to $4.25 per share, versus a previous range of $4.05 to $4.15 per share. It also projects sales to increase in the high single digits. Tiffany's gross margin widened to 58.2% from 56.2%. Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and chief executive officer, said, “This is an excellent and encouraging start to the year. We were pleased with the strong and broad-based sales growth across most regions and product categories and our ability to leverage those improved sales into very significant growth in operating and net earnings. Strength in fine and statement jewelry sales continued, while sales of our new or expanded jewelry collections accelerated, led by our ATLAS collection.” The company opened four stores in the first quarter and closed one in the US. Tiffany shares gained 5.92% to $93.45 in pre-market trading.