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Investing.com – L’Oreal stock (PA:OREP) traded 6% higher Friday in Paris as the cosmetics giant’s third quarter reflected the company winning over more salons and selling more lipsticks and fragrances to consumers wishing to look and feel better coming out of the pandemic.
Sales in the third quarter rose 13% to 8 billion euro ($9.28 billion). E-commerce, where L’Oreal started the pandemich a relatively low profile, accounted for around 27% of 9-month sales of 23.19 billion euro.
CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said the “beauty market is gradually returning to pre-crisis levels” and that L’Oreal should “outperform the market and achieve a year of growth in both sales and profits.”
Two of the four divisions of the company and contributing half of its revenue, L’Oreal Lux and Active Cosmetics, grew around 21% and over 28%, respectively. Sales in L’Oreal Lux were driven by North America, China and travel retail, bolstered by the reopening of economies.
Professional Product sales rose over 10% with Consumer Products being the laggard, managing just 3% growth.
Regionally, growth was strongest in North America, at 23%, as the U.S. and Canada opened up faster than most other parts of the world. North Asia and Latin America grew strongly too.
The company said the increasing digitalization of salons, the rise of independent stylists and the boom in e-commerce were all trends that it is trying to ride. Growth in haircare was strong among professional products.
At-home hair color, part of the L’Oreal’s consumer products division, saw a decline with the reopening of salons. Makeup continued to recover thanks to the buoyancy in brands like NYX Professional Makeup and Maybelline New York.
