Luxury goods purveyor LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton's (LVMUY 10.30%) stock wasn't feeling like much of a luxury for investors on Tuesday. Following the company's publication of its latest set of quarterly and annual results, they traded out of the shares, leaving them with a more than 2% loss on a day when the S&P 500 (^GSPC 9.52%) pushed into the black with a rise of almost 1%.
The 2024 results are in
The fourth quarter saw LVMH book 23.9 billion euros ($25.1 billion) in total revenue, which was essentially flat year over year.
Zooming out to the entirety of 2024, LVMH earned nearly 84.7 billion euros ($88.8 billion); however, that was down by 2% from the 2023 tally. In terms of product categories, the largest one, fashion and leather goods, slumped by 3% to slightly over 41 billion euros ($43 billion) for the year. On the downside, the biggest laggard was wines and spirits, with an 11% slump to less than 5.8 billion euros ($6.1 billion).
As for profitability, it fell more steeply. It landed at under 12.6 billion euros ($13.2 billion), representing a fall of 17% from the previous year's result.
OTC: LVMUY
Key Data Points
Growth wanted
Although some analysts were expecting steeper declines in revenue, those weaker numbers weren't particularly encouraging.
Despite this, LVMH put a positive spin on its performance, quoting CEO Bernard Arnault as saying:
In 2024, amid an uncertain environment, LVMH showed strong resilience. This capacity to weather the storm in highly turbulent times – already illustrated on many occasions throughout our group's history -- is yet another testament to the strength and relevance of our strategy.
The company's well-curated portfolio of brands is indeed resilient, but investors want more than just a sturdy product lineup -- they crave growth and improvement. It wasn't enough to simply top analyst projections; this market is eager to see LVMH's sales and profitability head higher again.
