Filed under: Earnings reports, Avon Products (AVP)

Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) reported Q4 earnings today, and it looks like the Avon Lady has beaten Wall Street. Revenues for the quarter jumped a nice 17% — got to love that. Diluted earnings per share dived 27% to $0.30, however — that’s not so lovable. Blame that dreaded cliche of earnings reports — restructuring costs.

Avon’s stock is currently trading up well over 5% as of 2:40 this afternoon. The company beat expectations of $0.28 per share. Avon saw a 20% increase in its beauty sales, an 18% increase in its beauty-plus category (that includes stuff like apparel, jewelry, etc.), and a 5% increase in its home products category. The number of active representatives also trended higher. Believe it or not, I buy Avon products every month from my friendly rep — I can’t live without its Advanced Techniques shampoos and its men’s body washes.

The stock is currently trading at a decent yield — approximately 2% — and it does have a good portfolio of women’s brands backed by the iconic Avon name. I’ll be honest, though, and say that, when it comes to consumer-products companies, I definitely think of companies like Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), Clorox (NYSE: CLX), and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) first. At least those brands don’t need representatives to push them. Still, over the long haul, Avon will probably reward patient shareholders.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.