By
Bloomberg
Published
Sep 14, 2023
Luxury-good companies face the risk of disappointing sales growth in China that will weigh further on stock prices, according to Barclays Plc, which cut its rating on French conglomerate LVMH as well as the wider industry.
“The luxury goods sector has been going through a severe de-rating over the past month, which we think reflects the deteriorating macro indicators coming from China and the gradual return to more normalized growth,” the analysts led by Carole Madjo wrote in a note late Wednesday after returning from a trip to the country.
LVMH dropped 0.3%to €727.20 at 9:33 a.m. in Paris, paring a drop of as much as 1.3%. At its low for the day, the stock had fallen 20% from its record high of €902 set in April.
Madjo lowered her recommendation on LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE to equal-weight from overweight and cut her price target on the stock to €835 from €932. There’s a risk for disappointment in the second half after the company’s margins fell short of estiimates at the end of last year and in the first half of 2023, the Barclays analysts said.
“Given that we view LVMH as a proxy for the sector, we also cut our industry view to neutral from positive,” the analysts wrote.
Luxury stocks spearheaded the rally in the European market during the first half of the year but have since lost momentum. LVMH shares are up 7.0% year-to-date while France’s CAC 40 blue-chip index has gained 11%.
Hermes International shares rose 0.6%, while the owner of Cartier, Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, was little changed.