Most of those designer watches you admire in exclusive shops are actually made by a relatively small number of industry stalwarts. One member of the club is headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey.
Movado Group (NYSE: MOV) designs, manufactures and distributes watches. The firm provides nine timepiece lines, including its own Movado, Ebel, Concord and Esq Swiss varieties, as well as Coach, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture, Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger licensed brands. The company also designs, develops, and markets proprietary Movado-branded jewelry and tabletop items. It sells its products directly and through a variety of retail outlets.
The firm pleased investors last week, when it reported Q2 EPS of 45 cents and revenues of $139.5 million. Analysts had
been looking for 42 cents and $132.9 million. The COO particularly noted solid quarterly adjusted gross profit (63.6% of sales) and operating profit (11.7% of sales). Management also affirmed previous FY08 guidance. The news popped the shares out of a late-August/early-September "cup" into the mid-September "handle" of a Cup & Handle formation. The price is now showing signs of completing the pattern with a bullish rise from the right-hand side of the "handle".
Brokers recommend the issue with one "strong buy" and two "buys". Analysts see a 17 percent growth rate through the next year. The MOV P/E ratio (17.68), Price to Sales ratio (1.58), Price to Book ratio (2.23), Price to Cash Flow ratio (12.62), Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (17.51) and Return on Assets (8.94%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutions hold about 69 percent of the outstanding shares. The stock is one of those used to calculate the S&P 600 SmallCap Index. Over the past 52 weeks, it has traded between $22.99 and $35.40. A stop-loss of $27.70 looks good here.
Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.










