Signet Q4 earnings jump 30%

Hamilton, Bermuda -- Signet Jewelers Ltd. on Thursday posted a better-than-expected 30% surge in profit its fourth quarter.

The jewelry retailer posted profit of $228 million, versus a year-ago profit of $175.2 million. Sales rose 45.5% to $2.28 billion, less than analysts expected. E-commerce sales came in at $149.6 million, versus $79.0 million last year.



Same-store sales rose 4.2% for the quarter. Same-store sales for the Kay brand were up 4.6%, while Jared’s same-store-sales gained 2.6%. Same store sales for the Zale division increased 3.7%.



Mark Light, CEO of Signet, said, "We had an outstanding finish to another strong year of growth for Signet. The disciplined execution of our focused strategies drove broad-based success across all of our divisions and store brands. For the quarter, we delivered a 4.2% increase in same store sales, EPS of $2.84, and adjusted EPS of $3.06 -- an increase of 40.4%. For the year, we generated a 4.1% same-store sales increase which led to EPS of $4.75 and adjusted EPS of $5.63 -- an increase of 23.5%.