Investing

As the Kering share price implodes, has it become a bargain?

Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

The Kering share price continued its strong downtrend this week as concerns about the luxury goods giant continued. KER, the parent company of Kering, Saint Laurent, and Bottega Veneta, slumped to €220, down by over 70% from its highest level in 2021. 

The fall of Gucci’s parent continues

Kering is one of the biggest players in the luxury goods industry. Its other popular brands are companies like Balenciaga, Brioni, Alexander McQueen, and Pormellato. Some of these ones are highly popular among luxury shoppers globally. 

Kering’s business has struggled in the past few years because of the ongoing weakness in the luxury shopping globally. Most of the weakness has been because of its business in China, which has continued to underperform its peers. Media reports show that many luxury shopping malls are not seeing the traffic they used to in the past.

At the same time, there are signs that Gucci is losing its appeal among luxury shoppers. This is notable since Gucci is the biggest part of Kering, accounting for about 43% of total sales. As a result, its weakness is having an outsize impact on the company.

Kering’s performance has differed from that of Hermes, a company that has become the most prestige group in the industry. Hermes shares are up by about 7% this year, while LVMH has crashed by over 20%. 

Hermes has beaten these companies by focusing on the upper end of the luxury market and by engineering product shortages without hiking prices too much. 

Read more: The end of luxury? Why 50 million shoppers are saying no to high-end brands

Kering financial weakness continues

The Kering share price has collapsed after the company delivered several profit warnings. It has also published a series of weak financial results. 

The most recent financial results showed that Gucci’s revenues dropped by 26% in the third quarter to €1.64 billion. Saint Laurent’s sales fell by 13% to €670 million during the quarter. Bottega Veneta sales rose by 4% to €397 million, while its eyewear and corporate rose by 32%.  

This trend of weak sales weakness will likely continue in the coming quarters as demand remains weak. That’s because many luxury shoppers have started to embrace other affordable brands. 

The Chinese economy is also expected to take a long period to bounce back. Recent results showed that Asia Pacific’s trend has been worsening. Its sales dropped by 30% last quarter after falling by 25% and 19% in the past two quarters, respectively. 

Worse, other markets are also not doing well too. In North America, sales fell by 15% in the last quarter after falling by 11% in Q2’24 and Q1’24.

The European market, which should be doing well because of the surge in tourism, is also struggling as sales dropped by 11%.

Therefore, Kering needs a complete overhaul of its brand to ensure that it is creating a differentiating aspect for its brands. 

As such, while Kering stock is now cheap, a turnaround will only happen if it shows that the company shows some signs of recovery.

Kering share price analysis

KER stock chart by TradingView

The weekly chart shows that the KER stock price has been in a strong bearish trend in the past few years. It has moved below the 61.8% Fibonacci Retracement level.

The stock formed a death cross pattern as the 50-week and 200-week Exponential Moving Averages (EMA) crossed each other. 

Also, the MACD indicator has moved below the zero line, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has continued falling. The RSI has formed a falling wedge pattern, a popular bullish sign.

Therefore, there is a likelihood that the Kering share price will likely continue falling as sellers target the key support at $200. In the long term, the stock will bounce back and moved to the 50% retracement point at €375. 

The post As the Kering share price implodes, has it become a bargain? appeared first on Invezz