A high-flying stock price has made Michael Kors rich. Just how rich? On Tuesday, the clothing designer became a billionaire.
Mr. Kors, who owns about 2 percent of Michael Kors Holdings, saw his estimated net worth cross the billion-dollar mark on Tuesday as the company’s stock price rose more than 17 percent. He joins a small club of billionaires of the fashion world, including Tory Burch and Sara Blakely, the creator of Spanx, according to Forbes.
The stock took off after an earnings report on Tuesday that blew past Wall Street’s expectations. The company said profit rose 77 percent in the recent quarter, and it added that it had increased its profit forecast for the coming year.
The stake owned by Mr. Kors rose in value to about $390 million, according to Bloomberg data. He also holds cash and other assets worth about $650 million, the data shows.
Or to put it another way, Mr. Kors’s net worth rose by about $34 million on Tuesday.
The calculation of his cash and other assets does not include his New York apartment or collection of luxury cars, according to Bloomberg.
A 54-year-old dropout of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Mr. Kors benefited tremendously from the initial public offering of his company in December 2011. With the shares on an upward trajectory, Mr. Kors has sold an estimated $715 million of stock.
Wall Street has been so good to Mr. Kors, a native of Long Island, that other brand-name fashion designers have begun to follow in his footsteps, Peter Lattman reported in DealBook last year.
The billionaire status of Mr. Kors was reported earlier by Bloomberg News. A spokeswoman for Michael Kors Holdings declined to comment.
