Puig Stock Rises Steeply on Back of Strong Q3 Sales
PARIS — The market smiled broadly on Puig’s third-quarter results, which sped past financial analysts’ expectations.
On Wednesday, the Barcelona-based beauty and fashion company’s stock closed up 9.6 percent, to 21.33 euros, on the Spanish Stock Exchange.
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As previously reported, the owner of Rabanne, Carolina Herrera, Dries Van Noten and Byredo’s sales in the three months ended Sept. 30 increased 11.6 percent on a like-for-like basis to 1.26 billion euros. Analysts had forecast an 8.8 percent rise.
Numbers were released after the market close on Tuesday. In an earnings call, Marc Puig, chairman and chief executive officer of Puig, reiterated the company’s confidence that the underlying prestige beauty market growth into next year should be at around 6 percent to 7 percent.
“Despite a strong third quarter, we expected limited changes to FY24 consensus expectations at this stage,” Céline Pannuti, managing director, head consumer staples research Europe at J.P. Morgan, wrote in a research note. “Importantly, we believe third-quarter delivery marks a strong check-point in Puig’s delivery after a weak first half, which should help investor confidence in managing delivery into Q424/FY25.”
Following the release of Puig’s first-half numbers in September, when the company reported a 26 percent drop in profit due to the cost of the group’s IPO, its shares tumbled 13 percent.
On Wednesday, Puig’s stock price was 12.9 percent lower than when the company went public on May 3. The IPO valued Puig at 13.9 billion euros and was multiple times oversubscribed. At the time, Puig’s float was the largest in Europe for 2024 and the biggest in Spain since 2015.
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