Movado Swings to 4Q Profit, Unveils Special Dividend

Powered by surging sales, watch maker Movado (NYSE:MOV) swung to a healthy fiscal fourth-quarter profit on Thursday and revealed plans to return cash to shareholders via a special dividend.

The company, whose brands include Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger and its namesake watches, said it earned $10.7 million, or 42 cents a share. A year earlier Movado lost $31 million, or $1.25 a share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, it earned 24 cents a share.

Movado said its sales soared 21% to $122.4 million. Gross margins surged to 53.7% from 30.9%.

“We have refined our product lines and introduced more frequent innovation, both of which have improved our competitive brand positioning while delivering more consistent sales and profit growth,” CEO Efraim Grinberg said in a statement.

Shareholders cheered as Movado upped its regular quarterly dividend by 67% to 5 cents a share and said its board of directors signed off on a special cash dividend of 50 cents a share.

“As the strategic plan that we began implementing last year continues to take hold, we are confident in our ability to maintain the momentum we have built in the business over the past eight quarters,” Grinberg said.

Paramus, N.J.-based Movado also unveiled upbeat guidance, projecting fiscal 2013 sales will jump about 8% to around $500 million to $505 million, translating to EPS of $1.10.

Shares of Movado jumped 5.07% to $23.40 in Thursday’s premarkets, putting them on track to add to their 2012 gain of more than 22%.