The shares of Asos (LSE: ASC) dropped 4% to 6,578p in early London trading this morning, as investors took profits following another quarter of rampant sales growth. The group’s total sales surged by 38% to reach £343m.
Asos, one of the UK’s foremost online retailing success stories, also revealed its active customer numbers had jumped by 41% to almost 8m by the end of 2013.
The company’s rapid overseas expansion continued last year — Asos recorded a 69% increase in EU sales, while overall international revenues climbed by 38%.
Commenting on the company’s latest results, chief executive Nick Robertson said:
“These results were driven by significant improvements to our customer proposition, including better delivery options, additional payment methods and the roll out of our premier service in key international markets… Work on significantly increasing the capacity of our Barnsley site continues and we plan to open our central European distribution centre later this year. The business continues to trade in line with expectations.”
Despite today’s share price decline, the shares of Asos trade at an incredible 59 times expected earnings and pay no dividend.
Of course, whether that valuation, today’s results and the future prospects for the online retailing industry all combine to make shares of Asos a ‘buy’ remains your decision.
