Movado 2Q profit falls 94 pct as sales tumble

Movado 2Q profit falls 94 percent as luxury watch sales drop, adjusted earnings beats view

• On 8:29 am EDT, Thursday September 3, 2009

PARAMUS, N.J. (AP) -- Movado Group Inc., the luxury watch retailer, said Thursday its second-quarter tumbled 94 percent on lower sales but its adjusted earnings still beat analysts' expectations.

The watch designer and distributor earned $528,000, or 2 cents a share, in the three months that ended July 31, down from $8.1 million, or 32 cents per share, a year earlier.

But its adjusted quarterly profit was 6 cents per share, better than the loss of 21 cents per share that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected. The analysts typically exclude one-time items from their estimstes.

Revenue fell 31 percent to $89.7 million from $129.7 million a year ago and just shy of the $90 million that analysts had predicted.

Movado, based in Paramus, N.J., also sells Coach and Hugo Boss watches.

Its shares closed Wednesday at $11.47. They have fallen 51 percent in the past year.