Buyback Wednesdays – Tapestry’s $1.5 Billion Buyback Plan

We are seeing a sea of red in markets today with the Dow Jones down more than 800 points (2.56%) and the Nasdaq down more than 400 points (3.62%) as I write this. In a challenging market environment, consumer staples and consumer defensive names sometimes help investors ride out volatility while sectors like consumer discretionary tend to take a harder hit. That belief was challenged today with Target (TGT) losing more than a fourth of its market cap following disappointing results with significant gross margin compression. We saw something similar from Walmart (WMT) where comparable same store sales improved 4% but bottom line profitability was hurt by higher input and transportation costs. Costco (COST) is also down 12% today in sympathy.

I was doing some research on another specialty retailer yesterday that reported results last month and suffered a similar hit to margins and profitability as described by Target and Walmart. I read through their earnings conference call transcript and came away with the conclusion that these challenges are likely to persist for a few quarters and it will be better off waiting on the investment. In this environment, it is interesting that the company that is at the top of our stock buybacks list today is Tapestry, the parent company of luxury brands Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman.

Tapestry might be able to ride out this high input costs environment because of its best in class gross margin that exceeds 70% and is better than both LVMH (parent of Fendi, Sephora, Dior, Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, etc.) and Capri Holdings (parent of Versace, Jimmy Choo and Michael Kors). Its consumers are also less price sensitive and might be better positioned to accept price increases should the company decided to pass on higher costs to its customers.

The key challenges the company faces is that consumer discretionary is not the best place to be in a downturn or recession. The extra stimulus and bubble money that drove sale growth in the recent past will not drive future growth. Tapestry is coming off five quarters of double digit revenue growth that benefited both from comparisons to pandemic quarters and growth in M1 money supply.

In anticipation of a difficult environment going forward, the company is trading at an astoundingly low forward P/E of 7.76 and a forward EV/EBITDA of 7.17. The company has $2.2 billion of net debt on the balance sheet but more than half that debt ($1.36 billion) is in the form of capital leases. It is therefore not surprising that the company announced a $1.5 billion buyback representing 18.6% of the company’s market cap at announcement. I would much rather the company buy back stock at these levels than increase its 25 cents per share quarterly dividend, which already works out to a yield of over 3%.

Welcome to edition 7 of Buyback Wednesdays, a weekly series that tracks the top stock buyback announcements during the prior week. A total of 27 companies have announced their stock buybacks this week. The companies in the list below are the ones that announced the largest buybacks as a percentage of their market caps. They are not the largest buybacks in absolute dollar terms. A word of caution. Some of these companies could be low volume small-cap stocks with a market cap below $2 billion.

Top 5 Stock Buyback Announcements

1. Tapestry, Inc. (TPR): $33.03

On May 12, 2022, the Board of Directors of this manufacturer of women’s apparel, accessories and luxury goods, approved a new share repurchase program authorizing the company to repurchase up to $1.50 billion of its class A common stock equal to nearly 18.6% of the common shares of the company. 

2. Nano Dimension Ltd. (NNDM): $2.91

On May 17, 2022, the Board of Directors of this electronics manufacturing company, approved a new share repurchase program authorizing the company to repurchase up to $100 million of its class A common stock equal to nearly 13.5% of the common shares of the company. 

3. Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. (WTT) : $1.5

On May 12, 2022, the Board of Directors of this electronic equipment manufacturing company, approved a new share repurchase program authorizing the company to repurchase up to $4 million of its class A common stock equal to nearly 11.6% of the common shares of the company. 

4. PLBY Group, Inc. (PLBY): $9.93

On May 17, 2022, the Board of Directors of this pleasure and leisure company, approved a new share repurchase program authorizing the company to repurchase up to $50 million of its class A common stock equal to nearly 11.4% of the common shares of the company. 

5. Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc. (SUNL) : $4.4

On May 16, 2022, the Board of Directors of this credit card issuing company, approved a new share repurchase program authorizing the company to repurchase up to $50 million of its class A common stock equal to nearly 10.98% of the common shares of the company. 

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