Tommy Hilfiger's Revenue Falls, but It Beats Expectations

Earnings Scorecard
Actual	Estimated*	Year-Ago
$0.47	$0.45	$0.62

Tommy Hilfiger(TOM Quote) posted third-quarter earnings that surpassed analyst expectations by 2 cents a share, but fell from a year ago.

Retail sales in general have been hurting, and Tommy Hilfiger wasn't immune. The apparel maker earned $42.7 million, or 47 cents a share, down from $59.1 million, or 62 cents a share, a year ago. Fifteen analysts' polled by earnings tracker First Call/Thomson Financial expected earnings of 45 cents a share.

But revenue for the quarter dipped to $475.8 million from $521.2 million last year.

For 2002, the company said it expects income and earnings per share to increase in the "low double-digit percentage range" over 2001 estimates. Analysts, on average, are calling for 2001 earnings to be $1.37 a share and 2002 earnings of $1.53, significantly lower than 2000 earnings that came in at $2.18 a share.

Tommy Hilfiger projected that its revenue next year would be only flat or slightly higher than revenue in 2001. First Call analysts expect revenues of $1.99 billion in 2002 and $1.89 billion in 2001, compared with revenue of $1.98 billion in 2000.

Shares of the company closed at $14.20 in Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange .