Luxottica'​s “positive” kick off the year

The Italian eyewear group has kicked off the new year in quite a “positive” fashion, according to Luxottica's CEO Andrea Guerra. The owner of Ray-Ban registered a 19 percent hike in net income for the fourth quarter and does not discharge

more acquisitions for the coming months.

“The start of 2013 has been particularly positive and March will be the same,” Guerra said in an interview with Bloomberg. Luxottica now foresees “double-digit” growth in the premium and luxury segments in 2013.

The Italian fashion sunglasses group reported fourth-quarter net income climbed 19 percent to 77 million euro. Adjusted for one-time items, profit for the year rose 24 percent to 567 million euro, compared with the 565 million euro median of 15 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Full-year operating profit was up by 22.3 percent to one billion euro, up 22.3 percent on the previous year's 821 million.

The Italian group reported adjusted net profit grew 19.3 percent to 87 million euro in the last quarter of 2012, boosted by strong global sales especially in emerging markets and easily surpassing the analysts consensus forecast of 84.2 million euro fourth-quarter net profit.

Backing up Luxottica's figures, analysts at Raymond James have restated their “outperform” on the stock, setting the target price at 49.35 dollars (38 euro) in an a report issued on Friday. Luxottica Group SpA traded up 0.70 percent on Friday, hitting 35.81 euro. The stock has a 52-week low of 24.61 euro and a 52-week high of 35.10 euro. The company has a market cap of 16.681 billion euro and a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.17.

Luxottica's board will propose to raise its dividend to 0.58 euro a share, compared to the 0.49 euro a share a year earlier.

With regards to its strategy for 2013, Luxottica has advanced its focus to be on Southeast Asian markets, including Indonesia and Thailand. “Indonesia is a huge market that’s growing fast,” the CEO said earlier this week in a call with analysts. “Vietnam is a new option on our table,” he added. It is noteworthy that Luxottica’s emerging-market sales increased 26 percent in 2012.

Finally, the group directed by Guerra does not say no to potential acquisitions in 2013 to stick to its current expansion strategy.