Why LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton Stock Flopped Today

Luxury goods purveyor LVMH Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton‘s (LVMUY -2.25%) stock wasn’t feeling like much of a luxury for investors on Tuesday. Following the company’s publication of its latest set of quarterly and annual results, they traded out of the shares, leaving them with a more than 2% loss on a day when the S&P 500 (^GSPC 0.92%) pushed into the black, with a rise of almost 1%.

The 2024 results are in

The fourth quarter saw LVMH book 23.9 billion euros ($25.1 billion) in total revenue, which was essentially flat year over year.

Zooming out to the entirety of 2024, LVMH earned nearly 84.7 billion euros ($88.8 billion); however, that was down by 2% from the 2023 tally. In terms of product categories, the largest one, fashion and leather goods, slumped by 3% to slightly over 41 billion euros ($43 billion) for the year. On the downside, the biggest laggard was wines and spirits, with an 11% slump to less than 5.8 billion euros ($6.1 billion).

As for profitability, it fell more steeply. It landed at under 12.6 billion euros ($13.2 billion), representing a fall of 17% from the previous year’s result.

Growth wanted

Although some analysts were expecting steeper declines in revenue, those weaker numbers weren’t particularly encouraging.

Despite this, LVMH put a positive spin on its performance, quoting CEO Bernard Arnault as saying:

In 2024, amid an uncertain environment, LVMH showed strong resilience. This capacity to weather the storm in highly turbulent times — already illustrated on many occasions throughout our group’s history — is yet another testament to the strength and relevance of our strategy.

The company’s well-curated portfolio of brands is indeed resilient, but investors want more than just a sturdy product lineup — they crave growth and improvement. It wasn’t enough to simply top analyst projections; this market is eager to see LVMH’s sales and profitability head higher again.

Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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