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Aeropostale posts

Earnings highlights: Home Depot, Target, Sears, Campbell, Deere and more

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Home Depot, Target, Sears, Campbell, Deere and more

Aeropostale earnings, sales on the upswing

Aeropostale (ARO) StoreIn a time where young, fiscally-minded shoppers still want to look trendy, they are fleeing across the shopping centers from Abercrombie & Fitch Co (NYSE: ANF), they are heading to the likes of The Buckle, Inc. (NYSE: BKE) and Aeropostale, Inc. (NYSE: ARO). Both delivered impressive earnings on Thursday and both are still in the green as the week winds up.

BKE said first-quarter earnings reached 58 cents per share, topping estimates by eight cents. Revenue surged 24.6%. ARO, meanwhile, banked per-share earnings of 49 cents, edging past Street estimates by a penny. Revenue jumped 21% to $408 million, while same-store sales for the first-quarter reporting period surged 11%.

Continue reading Aeropostale earnings, sales on the upswing

The week in preview: Eye on apparel and tech earnings

Last week we got a good look at how the apparel retailers have been doing when JCPenney Inc. (NYSE: JCP), Kohl's Corp. (NYSE: KSS), Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN), and Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) all reported better-than-expected earnings for the most recent quarter. On the other hand, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF), Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: EBHI), Liz Claiborne Inc. (NYSE: LIZ), and Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M) reported quarterly losses, reflecting the ongoing reluctance of consumers to spend.

Continue reading The week in preview: Eye on apparel and tech earnings

Short City: Aeropostale, Burger King

Every market is a two-sided market, and while the typical investor makes money during bullish phases, experienced investors know how to make money during bearish phases, as well. In fact, many experienced and institutional traders make more money shorting stocks than by going long.

Short these shares if you can tolerate high-risk and are an experienced investor that does not remove Buy / Stop Losses.

Continue reading Short City: Aeropostale, Burger King

Abercrombie & Fitch sees huge sales decline in Q1

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) was not hot at all in the first quarter. It's funny. You hear about the recession coming to an end this year, about things getting better, and then you check out some retail stats and you begin to wonder.

Anyway, Abercrombie, which shares space at the mall with names like J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), Gap (NYSE: GPS), and Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO), saw its top line decline by 24%. Same-store sales for the company's entire operations dropped 30%. Same-store sales at the Abercrombie & Fitch brand itself plunged 26%. Earnings per share took a dive of more than 50% to $0.31. It should be noted, however, that there is a pending non-cash charge that will be added to these results at a later time.

Continue reading Abercrombie & Fitch sees huge sales decline in Q1

Teen retailers buck the trend with strong sales

Retail is abysmal right now, and apparel is getting totally hammered.

But one segment of that market is holding up pretty well: clothing for teens. The USA Today reports that Buckle (NASDAQ: BKE), Hot Topic (NASDAQ: HOTT), and Aéropostale (NYSE: ARO) were the only specialty stores this week to report positive same-store sales in March.

Mary Brett Whitfield, senior vice president at the management consulting and research firm Retail Forward, told the newspaper that "Teens are still growing and might actually need new clothes."

Continue reading Teen retailers buck the trend with strong sales

Earnings highlights: Citigroup, Kroger, Staples, J. Crew, National Semiconductor and more

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Citigroup, Kroger, Staples, J. Crew, National Semiconductor and more

Aeropostale beats analysts, grows earnings and comps, but stock still sells off ... why?

Mall retailers have been struggling, but Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO), whose colleagues include Gap (NYSE: GPS), Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), and American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), actually posted a pretty decent earnings report on Thursday after the bell. For the fourth quarter, Aeropostale earned $1.01 per share. That performance represented a 6% growth rate, and it beat analyst estimates by the proverbial penny.

Continue reading Aeropostale beats analysts, grows earnings and comps, but stock still sells off ... why?

J. Crew beats analysts, but the stock is not in fashion to me

J.Crew J. Crew Group (NYSE: JCG) issued a Q4 report that the market seemed to like. The retailer posted a loss of 22 cents per share on Tuesday after the bell. As I said in my earnings preview, Wall Street was bracing for a loss of 27 cents per share. That five-penny beat helped to send J. Crew's shares up by well over 10% in the after-hours session.

I think the buying was a bit overdone. Sure, I'll give credit where credit is due. Management did beat the analysts and their precious earnings models. How much credit should I give beyond that?

Continue reading J. Crew beats analysts, but the stock is not in fashion to me

The week in preview: Bernanke, earnings winners, and Raymond James conference

After testifying before a Senate committee about AIG (NYSE: AIG) last week, the Fed's Ben Bernanke participates in a Council of Foreign Relations event Monday evening.

Economic data due to be released this week include wholesale trade and job vacancies for January on Tuesday morning, the U.S. Treasury budget for February on Wednesday, retail sales for February and business inventories for January on Thursday morning, and the U.S. trade balance for January on Friday morning.

Continue reading The week in preview: Bernanke, earnings winners, and Raymond James conference

Urban Outfitters misses estimates -- a buying opportunity or not?

Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN), as one might have expected, didn't report a great fourth quarter. It's a fashionable retailer, so you can imagine that consumers, who aren't in the mood to spend top dollar on clothes and accessories, forced the company to do a lot of discounting.

Sales, though, were healthy. The top line increased by 9%, and same-store sales at the Urban Outfitters brand rose 3%. Unfortunately, Q4 wasn't so kind to the Anthropologie and Free People brands. Their comps were down 6% and 13%, respectively. And the company missed earnings estimates. The call was for 28 cents per share, but the retailer was only able to deliver 24 cents per share.

Continue reading Urban Outfitters misses estimates -- a buying opportunity or not?

2008 Trades Gone Bad #1: Going long the specialty retailers

If you made a bet on the specialty retailers leading up to the first $600 taxpayer rebate stimulus package, you got hammered.

Talk about a government plan backfiring big time.

That $300 billion in checks that fell out of the sky from government helicopters back in the March to May timeframe didn't find its way to the malls at all.

Instead, people paid down credit card debt, and tuition, medical and other bills, leaving little for spending on non-essentials.

The result was a litany of store closings nationwide, with several old-line, brand-name retailers going out of business.

It's game over for names like Circuit City (OTC: CCTYQ), Cache (NASDAQ: CACH), Talbots (NYSE: TLB), J. Jill, Wickes Furniture, Levitz, Bombay, Linens 'n Things, Movie Gallery, Wilson Leather, KB Toys and The Sharper Image.

Traders that leveraged into darling names, like hedge fund idol Eddie Lampert's Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD), got smoked. Shares of SHLD were trading at $105 when the checks when out. Today the stock is around $40.

Even Costco (NASDAQ: COST) -- the obvious slam dunk, aside from Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) -- got slammed, falling from $75 to $45 following the so-called stimulus package.

Continue reading 2008 Trades Gone Bad #1: Going long the specialty retailers

Abercrombie sticks to its guns on prices

Abercombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) is resisting the tidal wave of discounting that is hitting malls, and is sticking to its retail prices. On a recent conference call, CEO Michael Jeffries called aggressive discounting a "short-term solution with dreadful long-term effects."

The idea behind the fear of discounting is that it kills margins and causes irreparable damage to a brand: If Abercrombie starts selling shirts for $30 instead of $60, will it be able to jack prices back up when the tide turns?

Here's the problem for Abercrombie: If the recession lasts awhile, which most experts predict it will, consumers will continue to flock to lower-priced stores that are embracing discounting like Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) and H&M. At some point, teens may realize that wearing cheaper t-shirts from Aeropostale won't prevent them from being cool or getting into college. Abercrombie could then become the Gap (NYSE: GPS) of the second decade of the millennium.

For now, though, Abercrombie's strategy seems prudent even if it does batter the stock price with hideous same-store sales numbers. The company can always change its mind and begin discounting aggressively. It's much harder to go back.

Earnings highlights: Sears, GE, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Staples and others

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Sears, GE, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Staples and others

Aeropostale reports a good quarter, but should you buy?

Youth-retailer Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) had a much better third quarter than I thought it would have. I was expecting a lower earnings growth rate and a worse performance in terms of same-store sales. Diluted earnings per share actually rose over 30%, coming in at $0.63. Way to go. And this performance beat expectations by a penny, according to Reuters Estimates. Net sales increased 17%. Double-digit expansion in both the top and bottom lines really is something to crow about in this terrible mall environment.

At least as far as I'm concerned, the 5% fall in same-store sales for the month of November wasn't too bad, especially considering that comps increased 7% for Q3 as a whole. Plus, on a year-to-date basis, comps rose 7%. Management can be proud of its achievements. However, that 5% drop in comparable sales for November is, unfortunately, a sticking point in terms of buying the retailer's stock. The economy has gotten much worse since I wrote about Aeropostale back in August. This decline might be a precursor to more bad times ahead. In fact, the stock is no longer as strong as it was earlier in the year. Shares of Aeropostale are trading closer to a 52-week low as opposed to a 52-week high.

There's no question that Aeropostale, whose colleagues at the mall include Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), Gap (NYSE: GPS) and American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), has been efficiently marketing to its target audience. There's also no question that now may not be the time to roll the dice on a business that caters to fickle demos. Personally, I think Aeropostale offers value at these levels. But I'd still rather wait for the macro economy to improve before getting into this retailer.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

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Last updated: July 06, 2009: 02:57 PM

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