Good day everybody, and welcome to the Movado Group, Inc. First Quarter 2027 earnings conference call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded and may not be reproduced in full or in part without permission from the company. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Allison Malkin of ICR. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. With me on the call today are Efraim Grinberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Sallie DeMarsilis, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I would like to remind you of the company's safe harbor language, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. The statements contained in this conference call, which are not historical facts, may be deemed to constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual future results may differ materially from those suggested in such statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, all of which are described in the company's filings with the SEC, which includes today's press release.
If any non-GAAP financial measure is used on this call, a presentation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure to this non-GAAP financial measure will be provided as supplemental financial information in our press release. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Efraim Grinberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Movado Group.
Thank you, Allison. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. With me today is Sallie DeMarsilis, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. After these prepared remarks, we'll be happy to answer your questions. We are very pleased with our start to the year. Our first quarter performance demonstrates meaningful momentum across our business and continued consumer strength despite a dynamic external environment. Sales increased 8.1% as reported, or 4.5% on a constant currency basis, reaching $142.4 million. Adjusted operating profit increased to $7.5 million from $900,000 in Q1 of last year. Adjusted earnings per share increased to $0.32 from $0.08, driven by strong execution against our strategic priorities. Continued strong U.S. momentum and improving trends in Europe led the way. This was supported by increased retailer replenishment activity, currency tailwinds, and robust direct-to-consumer growth across both movado.com and our company stores.
The Middle East region was extremely challenging due to the ongoing conflict. Excluding this region, our growth would have been even more significant, underscoring the strength of our core markets. On the profitability front, gross margin improved 320 basis points due to a favorable mix of business despite a stronger Swiss franc. Our teams executed well against the strategic priorities we've outlined. We ended the quarter with $225 million in cash and no debt, providing us with significant financial flexibility. In recognition of our solid financial position and belief in the long-term health of our business, I am also pleased to share that our board approved a $0.05 per share increase in our quarterly cash dividend to $0.40 per share. I'd now like to discuss our performance in the context of our key strategic priorities.
Our first priority is to put our customers at the center of everything we do. In that regard, we continue to strengthen consumer engagement across digital platforms while delivering trend right product that honors each brand's unique identity. We're particularly encouraged by the resurgence of the fashion watch category, especially among younger consumers globally, who are increasingly attracted to traditional watches. Let me share some brand highlights. Movado delivered strong performance with renewed interest in both innovative new designs and iconic classics. Several best-selling styles sold out during the quarter, and we expect to replenish these key items by summer. Movado.com sales increased 12.8%, reflecting strong direct consumer demand and our improved digital capabilities. Our company stores achieved a 10.2% sales increase, while our enhanced analytics and customer engagement tools are helping us better understand consumer preferences and optimize assortments across all our channels.
Our second strategic priority is to deliver consumer and brand-focused innovation. In that regard, the Movado brand sales growth was driven by retailer replenishment and continued consumer response to our Bangles Collection, Museum Velura, and the new Mini BOLD Evolution Tank. The Heritage 1917 collection for both men and women continues to exceed expectations, and our new curved jewelry collection is resonating strongly on movado.com, validating our strategy to expand jewelry within the Movado portfolio.
Looking ahead to Father's Day and the second quarter, we're excited about two launches, the new sporty BOLD Verso S Collection and the vintage-inspired Kingmatic Collection, both experiencing strong early demand. Additionally, our limited drop of the new 23 mm Baby Face watch in spring colors sold out quickly, validating consumer appetite for smaller, distinctive sizes. Across our licensed brands, we're seeing strong momentum. Net sales were up 6.5% for the first quarter over last year.
Excluding the Middle East, licensed brand sales increased 9.2% on a constant currency basis, with new shapes and sizes driving results across multiple markets and categories. Coach is seeing strong Gen Z engagement, particularly with the iconic Signature C dial on our Sammy Oval family. The new 22 mm Iris family is off to a strong start, further validating demand for innovation in smaller women's watches. Lacoste is building strong momentum with new LC33 executions, including a square version in signature khaki green. The René Collection, named after René Lacoste himself, is resonating well. Our Metropole bracelet continues to drive jewelry sales globally. HUGO BOSS performance is led by the Grand Prix Chronograph family and the new Grand Prix Vitesse, with expanding men's classic assortments. The North pendant, our latest men's jewelry innovation, has quickly become a bestseller. Tommy Hilfiger's Bruce family continues to drive global performance.
We're increasingly penetrating the women's market with strong demand for new shapes and sizes, particularly the Mia and the newly introduced Mackenzie Collections. In Calvin Klein, the Mini Pulse family continues its strong performance, while the new Sophisticated Square is quickly becoming a bestseller. Men's is gaining traction with the new 39 mm Motion family. Finally, Olivia Burton's retail sell-through in the U.S. and the U.K. remains strong, both in-store and online, driven by the Mini Grove and the Mini Grosvenor Collections. Our third strategic priority is to deliver compelling consumer storytelling. We recently launched digital content celebrating the 145th anniversary of Movado, inviting consumers to experience not only our rich heritage, but also the quality and craftsmanship behind every Movado watch. Engagement has been exceptionally strong across digital platforms. Our brand ambassadors, Ludacris, Christian McCaffrey, Julianne Moore, Jessica Alba, and Tyrese Haliburton, continue to authentically represent our collections.
Across the portfolio, we're deepening consumer connections through strategic storytelling, including our association with Checo Pérez and the Cadillac Formula 1 Team for Tommy Hilfiger. We will continue amplifying these initiatives across our brand portfolio throughout the year. Our fourth strategic priority is to expand margins and increase profitability. In that regard, we improved gross margin by 320 basis points in Q1, primarily due to a favorable sales mix and continuing to elevate our full price selling. Our focus remains on three key drivers, introducing higher-margin products, driving full-price selling through stronger brand positioning while reducing promotional activity, and improving efficiency across our value chain and operations. While progress may vary quarter to quarter, we believe these initiatives position us to deliver meaningful long-term margin improvement. As we look ahead, we remain encouraged by the improving trends across the business and by demonstrated consumer resilience.
While the external environment remains dynamic, we believe our strong portfolio of brands, disciplined execution, healthy balance sheet, and commitment to innovation position us well for the remainder of the year. We are particularly optimistic about the renewed momentum in the fashion watch category, the strength in our direct-to-consumer business, and the positive reception to our new product introductions across both owned and licensed brands. While we're not providing guidance due to the current economic and geopolitical uncertainty, including the unpredictable impact of the current Middle East conflict, we expect sales growth to moderate in the second quarter, particularly on a constant currency basis, following the strong replenishment activity we experienced in Q1. Our focus remains on controlling what we can control, investing behind our brands—
We are having technical difficulty. Thank you for your patience. The conference will be resuming momentarily. Once again, we are having technical difficulties.
I understand we dropped off for a second. I will finish my comments and then turn it over to Sallie. Our focus remains on controlling what we can control, investing behind our brands, deepening consumer engagement, improving operational efficiencies, and driving long-term profitability. I want to recognize our global teams for their commitments to our strategy and execution within a complex environment. I'll turn the call over to Sallie to review our financial results in greater detail.
Thank you, Efraim, and good morning, everyone. For today's call, I will review our financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2027. My comments today will focus on adjusted results. Please refer to the description of the special item included in our results for the first quarter of fiscal 2027 in our press release issued earlier today, which also includes a reconciliation table of GAAP and non-GAAP measures. Overall, we were very pleased with our first quarter fiscal 2027 performance. Our results included top-line growth of 8.1% versus the first quarter of fiscal 2026 and marked our fourth quarter of sequential improvements. We continued to make good progress on our strategic initiatives and maintained an extremely strong balance sheet. Turning to a review of the quarter.
Sales were $142.4 million as compared to $131.8 million last year, reflecting growth in our own brands, licensed brands, and in our company stores. In constant dollars, the increase in net sales was 4.5%. Strong overall sales more than compensated for our weak performance in the Middle East due to the ongoing conflict. By geography, U.S. net sales increased 8.7% as compared to the first quarter of last year. International net sales increased 7.6%. On a constant currency basis, international net sales increased 1.6%. Gross profit as a percentage of sales was 57.3%, compared to 54.1% in the first quarter of last year. The year-over-year increase in gross margin rate was primarily driven by favorable channel and product mix and increased leverage of certain costs over higher sales, partially offset by a negative impact of the fluctuation in foreign currency, foreign exchange rates.
We experienced temporary favorability in gross margin during the first quarter of fiscal 2027 due to the elimination of the IEEPA tariffs to the extent that we had residual inventory in our U.S. warehouse. As for the potential recovery of the $10 million of IEEPA tariffs we had previously paid, we have elected to not recognize the gain until the cash refund is received. Operating expenses were $74.1 million as compared to $70.5 million for the same period of last year. The increase was driven by higher marketing expenses and performance-based compensation. Higher sales and gross margin dollars more than offset the increase in operating expenses, resulting in an operating income increasing $6.6 million to $7.5 million as compared to $900,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2026.
We recorded approximately $2 million of other non-operating income in the first quarter of fiscal 2027, which was primarily comprised of interest earned on our global cash position and distributions received from a venture capital fund in which we hold a limited partnership interest. This compared to $1.8 million recorded during the same period of last year, which was primarily interest earned on our global cash. We recorded income tax expense of $2.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 as compared to $800,000 in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Net income in the first quarter was $7.3 million, or $0.32 per diluted share as compared to $1.9 million or $0.08 per diluted share in the year-ago period. Now turning to our balance sheet.
Cash at the end of the first quarter was $225.3 million as compared to $203.1 million at the same period of last year, and we reported positive cash flow from operations in the first quarter of fiscal 2027 of $7 million. In recognition of our strong cash flow generation and solid financial position, this morning, we are pleased to have announced a $0.05 increase in our quarterly dividend to $0.40 per share. Accounts receivable was $80 million as compared to $87.3 million for the same period of last year. The reduction was due to timing and mix of business. Inventory at the end of the quarter decreased $7.3 million from the same period of last year due to the timing of receipt. In the first three months of fiscal 2027, capital expenditures were $1.2 million.
As it relates to share repurchases, we repurchased approximately 61,000 shares in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. As of April 30th, 2026, we had $44.6 million of availability remaining under our December 5th, 2024 share repurchase program. Given the current economic and geopolitical uncertainty, including the unpredictable impact of the current Middle East conflict, the company has elected to not provide fiscal 2027 outlook at this time. I would now like to open the call up for questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Owen Rickert with Northland Securities. Please proceed.
Hey, guys. Congrats on a great quarter, and thanks for taking my questions here. First for me, how much of the strong gross margin expansion is structural versus one-time, and what's the right baseline to think about for the rest of the year?
We would expect, based on the balance of the year, to generate higher gross margin than last year, but not at this level that we did in Q2. It's probably somewhere between halfway across both of those. Sallie, would you say that's true?
That's fair. Yep.
Okay. We are looking for an improvement in gross profit, and we think that the actions that we're taking will have long-term benefits in our gross margin improvement, especially as we reduce SKU counts across our brands and rationalize our suppliers.
Got it. Super helpful. Building off of that, you cited channel and product mix as key drivers of that expansion for the quarter. Which brands or channels are really moving the needle here?
Our direct channels did very well, obviously, in Q1. Our movado.com website, our oliviaburton.com websites, and our retail channel. We're also seeing strength across our digital partners across the world, with the exception of the Middle East. I think all those things contributed to improve gross margin. Improved Movado wholesale business also drives our margins as well.
Got it. Next for me, we keep hearing smaller case sizes and distinctive shapes. That seems to be a key theme here. How are you repositioning inventory in the product roadmap to lean into that? Are retailers ordering ahead on it?
One of our focuses really for the last 18 months has been driving innovation. Obviously, there's a lead time to do that. There are places where in brands we've advanced the needle better than in other brands. We still have a lot of opportunity in that area. What's been really rewarding, particularly, has been to see younger consumers into the traditional watch space, and we think they're here to stay. They've been out of the market for a long period of time. That's really exciting to see. Getting them into the fashion watch market means that ultimately they'll be moving up the channel and price points as well. That phenomena has really been on a global basis. I think it portends well for the future of the watch category.
Great. Thanks, guys. Appreciate you taking my questions.
Thank you, Owen.
Thanks, Owen.
Our next question is from Hamed Khorsand with BWS Financial. Please proceed.
Hi. The commentary about the retailer replenishment, was that a one-time event in the quarter, and you think it was just borrowed from Q2? Is that really just a matter of timing as far as that replenishment selling through? I'm just a little confused with what you're talking about, Q2.
Sure. Really it has to do with, as you remember, Q4 was better than we expected and better than our retailers expected, so they needed to replenish more inventory than usual, or than certainly the last number of years. That occurred in Q1. What it's also done is deplete us of certain inventory, which, as I said, will be hopefully solved by summer, which will enable us to, I think, get on a more balanced schedule through the second half of the year and the important holiday selling season. I think we have shortages today of inventory, particularly in our Movado brand. They were unanticipated prior to Q1 of this year.
Okay. Then what are your thoughts about the current ongoing interest in Swatch's new release? Is that a good thing for you, a bad thing for the industry? What are your thoughts?
I think, look, I'm fairly neutral on it, but I think any interest in the watch category is a good interest, and especially in, although this is somewhat of a hybrid, but of traditional watches that celebrate craftsmanship and watchmaking and mechanical movements. All those things are certainly a good note for the watch business, and I think we make a lot of really beautiful fashion watches, and you've seen that our innovation is driving demand among young consumers. We know that our penetration of Gen Z consumers, for example, in our Coach brand is extremely high. We think that bringing interest to the category is a great thing. That's probably my point of view on that situation.
Okay, great. Thank you.
With no further questions, I would like to turn the floor back over to Efraim for closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you very much all of you for participating, and great questions today. As you can tell, we have a big belief in our business and the long-term prospects of both the category and our company, and think that there are a lot of opportunities ahead, and we look forward to talking to you at the end of our second quarter. Thank you.
Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may disconnect at this time. Thank you for your participation.