Hermes International Sees €4 Mil Insider Purchase

Corporate insiders know more about their businesses than anyone else. If these individuals are buying company stock, it’s often worth taking a closer look.

In this report, we are going to highlight some interesting insider buying at Hermes International (RMS:FP). Hermes is a French luxury goods manufacturer that sells leather goods, clothing, scarves, home furnishings, perfume, watches, and jewelry. It is listed on Euronext - Paris and currently has a market cap of around €198.30 billion.

Insider Buying at Hermes

Our data shows that on May 8, Hermes insider Frederic Dumas purchased 2,100 shares at a price of €1,914.17 per share in an over-the-counter transaction. This trade was worth a total of €4.02 million.

Good Trading Track Record

Frederic Dumas is the son of Robert Dumas, who was previously CEO of Hermes. And in the past, Frederic was a member of Hermes’ Supervisory Board. So, he is likely to know the company very well.

It’s worth noting that Frederic has made well-timed purchases in the past. In June last year, for example, he purchased stock when it was trading at €1,035. Since then, the stock has risen as high as €2,022.50.

Strong Sales Growth

Hermes recently posted better-than-expected Q1 sales figures thanks to strong demand for its products from wealthy shoppers and prices rises across its product range.

For the period, sales came in at €3.38 billion, up 23% year on year at constant exchange rates. This level of growth was well ahead of the figure of 15% that analysts had been expecting.

All geographic areas performed well during the quarter. Asia excluding Japan delivered growth of 23%, while the Americas and Europe excluding France generated growth of 19% and 21% respectively.

Meanwhile, all business lines achieved very good results too. Ready-to-wear and Accessories and Watches were two of the best-performing business lines.

"The first quarter of 2023 is aligned with the good results of 2022 and reflects the success met by our collections all over the world, driven by the loyalty of our customers,” commented Executive Chairman Axel Dumas.

In light of these strong results, we see the insider buying here as a bullish development.