Helen of Troy (NASDAQ: HELE) sells personal care and household consumer products. The personal care goods include such items as hair dryers, curling irons, hair setters, women's shavers and skin care products. The firm offers its own lines (e.g: Helen of Troy, Hot Tools and Hot Spa), as well as licensed merchandise (e.g: Vidal Sassoon, Revlon and Dr. Scholl's). On the household side, offerings include kitchen tools, household cleaning items, gardening tools and rechargeable lighting devices. Products are sold through beauty supply distributors and such mass merchandisers as Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT). Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is a major competitor.

The company pleased investors last week, when it reported fiscal Q1 EPS of 42 cents and revenues of $145 million. Analysts had been looking for 30 cents and $142.8 million. The sales figure was a company first quarter record.

The stock popped into a bullish "pennant" consolidation pattern on the news. Equities frequently leave a pennant with a move in the same direction they were traveling on entry. In this case, that would be to the upside.

Brokers recommend the shares with one "strong buy", one "buy", one "hold" and one "sell". The HELE P/E ratio (8.36), PEG ratio (0.84), Price to Sales ratio (0.75), Price to Book ratio (0.87), Price to Cash Flow ratio (6.50), Price to Free Cash Flow ratio (4.78) and EPS Growth rate (31.25%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutional investors hold about 80% of the outstanding shares. Over the past fifty-two weeks, the stock has traded between $14.56 and $28.18. A stop-loss of $16.10 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com. He does not hold positions in any of the stocks mentioned above.