Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO), a retailer that competes with Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), and Gap (NYSE: GPS), posted what I thought was a superb second-quarter earnings summary on Thursday after the bell. The figures were very appealing, and I would've expected a better after-hours reaction by the stock to the news. Then again, the market can never be predicted. It will do whatever the heck it wants.

Net sales increased 20%. Not bad, am I right? Wait, check this out. Earnings per share came in at 57 cents, compared to the 31 cents reported in the year-ago quarter. According to Reuters, that was a penny ahead of expectations. But that penny beat on the bottom line isn't what impresses me the most. It's the strong per-share profit expansion that I find compelling.

Continue reading Aeropostale posts a sharp increase in Q2 profit

Aeropostale posts a sharp increase in Q2 profit originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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

Teen retailers buck the trend with strong sales originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) is probably the best managed specialty retailer of the pack. It's maintained strict discipline on pricing and discounting, unlike many of its peers. ANF has managed to expand its offerings into three separated branded chains selling to different markets.

And the company enjoyed accolades from Wall Street after it beat earnings estimates handily on Feb. 13, reporting earnings of $1.10 per share versus consensus of $1.01 per share. Shares were up over 10% on the news. While I think not much has changed with Abercrombie's operational expertise and its strategy, the current environment is simply not conducive to teens paying big bucks for clothes.

Continue reading Why the Street is wrong about Abercrombie & Fitch

Why the Street is wrong about Abercrombie & Fitch originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post was part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst of 2007 feature. The voting has now closed and readers have chosen Google Inc. as the company of the year. Be sure and let us know in the comments if you are pleased with this result.

Corporate America, the markets, and Wall Street are lumbering through a so-so year -- one likely to be characterized by mediocre U.S. GDP and earnings performance, along with ample portions of market volatility.

To be sure, no one will confuse 2007 with a peak year during the "Roaring '20s" or even the "Roaring '90s." Still, there were several standout performances, which we summarize in our "Company of the Year" award.

Facebook

Facebook deserves an honorable mention. The online directory shows considerable promise as an online community and networking device. Provided information is kept confidential and is not released or sold to unauthorized third parties, the business model can serve as another meeting room for groups that might not otherwise be able to meet for geographic or other reasons.

Continue reading Best & Worst of 2007: Company of the year

Best & Worst of 2007: Company of the year originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) personal finance guru Laura Rowley thinks high school students ought to have credit cards: "No, I'm not getting paid by the credit card industry. I think those companies are a potentially dangerous enemy, and you have to prepare your child to be a worthy opponent in battle. You want them to conquer this prospective foe, and transform it into a humble servant that does their bidding."

She is exactly right. When my mother was growing up in New York in the 1960s, her parents would take her out to a restaurant every once in awhile and buy her a drink with dinner. Their friends thought they were insane. "How could you encourage your daughter to drink underage?" My grandparents replied that they wanted her to "learn to drink responsibly" and that having a drink with her parents at dinner was a better place to learn that than a party in college. My mother has never had a problem with alcohol.

Continue reading Credit cards for kids?

Credit cards for kids? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A piece in the New York Times discusses an exciting trend among youthful job seekers. According to the director of the Arlington Employment Center, "I think the desire for summer jobs has changed a little bit; kids are looking not only for income, but what makes them look good for the next step in their life." Rather than settling for jobs as grocery store clerks or landscapers, students want internships or at least internship-like jobs -- summer experiences that may lead them toward a long-term career.

Youth unemployment, however, is on the rise at three times the national average, and the upcoming increase in the minimum wage could do little to help. But kids who seek jobs that they can bring enthusiasm and perhaps knowledge to should be able to distinguish themselves from the pack.

A few weeks ago, I gave readers my list of tips for summer-job seeking teens. If you are a teen and haven't started the summer job search yet, you need to get on that. Here are some sites that can help:

• About.com: TeenJobs
• SummerJobs.com
• Teens4Hire.org
• SnagaJob.com

Good luck with your summer job hunt. And remember, it's about more than money: Find something that will give you valuable life experience.

Teens don't wanna work ... they just wanna bang on their drums all day! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

American Century Investments recently gave a 10-question "quiz" to more than 680 Americans 18-41 years old, and found some pretty disturbing information about the state of America's financial literacy. Less than 20% of respondents understood the meaning of the term "asset allocation" and less than half seemed to understand the idea of diversification. The numbers get worse as the respondent gets younger, but the news is pretty bad across the board.

This got me to thinking: I'm often critical of the idea of hiring a financial adviser, because I think that people can do just as well themselves for a lot less money. But if people are really this uninformed, maybe they do need hired help?

But then you enter into a classic Catch-22. If you don't have at least a basic understanding of personal finance, you are probably poorly equipped to evaluate and hire a financial adviser. Many of them don't provide quality service, charge high fees, or will stick you with mutual funds that have very high-expense ratios. So some knowledge is probably a prerequisite for hiring an adviser. But if you have some knowledge, you probably don't need one.

So now the question is Where shall wisdom be found? As Issac Asimov has said, self-education is the best education. But how? Millions of Americans have turned to charlatans like Robert Kiyosaki in search of financial salvation, and I strongly believe that following his advice can lead to disaster. So here is my quick and dirty list for the non-financially inclined who want to know just enough to manage their own finances:

• Andrew Tobias's The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need
• The Boglehead's Guide to Investing
• Personal Finance For Dummies

I really believe that if you can read and understand the concepts outlined in those books, you probably don't need to hire outside help.

People don't know what it means to be diversificated! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 29 May 2007 10:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Thursday's Wall Street Journal took an interesting look at some of the problems facing teens looking for summer work. As someone who worked numerous jobs during my high school summers (not all that long ago), I thought I'd offer some tips. I learned far more working during high school than I did in the classroom (although I could also say that about watching cartoons and blowing my nose), and this was partly a result of finding jobs that were unique and matched my interests. So here are my tips:

Don't focus on the money...unless you have to. In some families, cash is so tight that the teenage worker needs to earn as much as he or she can, and I understand that. But if you're not in that situation, the best advice I can give you is to not worry about how much the job pays. There's a good chance that you will be forking over tens of thousands of dollars for your child's education and a dollar or two an hour will hardly make a dent (even if your child doesn't blow it on clothing, video games, and dates), and a good high school job can be a great education -- and it pays! So don't let money stop your child from taking a job he'd love over one he isn't so excited about.

Continue reading Tips for a summer job for teens

Tips for a summer job for teens originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 10 May 2007 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I, along with a lot of other people, have been a constant critic of the financial literacy and habits of our youth. After all, most kids can't tell a savings account from a 401(k), and young people are filing for bankruptcy at record rates, and some are even dumb enough to use sites like PeachDirect.com. However, reading a recent piece from Marketwatch.com, I saw a sign of hope: The young people who do keep track of their money are becoming more self-reliant, and the obsession of past generations with seeking professional guidance appears to be diminishing:

Young people not afraid to go it alone on finance originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I love breakfast.

But I'm not a morning person. And when I happen to be out and about, garage saling or running errands or recovering from what I like to call a "mommy hangover," I find myself at a McDonald's. And all I want is breakfast. Somehow the Sausage McMuffin satisfies that need I have for protein, salt, and iron, without making me feel as if I've given my soul to the demons of empty calories.

If it's after 10:30 a.m., though, I'm sunk. And given that I (a health-conscious adult who tends to steer clear of partying 'til the wee hours) want breakfast past 10:30, I can only imagine how much the considerable teenager and, umm, hungover demographics would appreciate being able to eat Sausage McMuffins and hashbrowns and all kinds of other deliciousness at 11 a.m., or 12:30, or even four in the afternoon. I know. Shocking, right?

I've thought since my own teenage years that McDonald's and fast food restaurants of every kind were ignoring a huge consumer need by cutting off breakfast in mid-morning. Now, it seems that McDonald's finally agrees; the news from Jim Skinner's presentation at the Bank of America 36th Annual Investment Conference: breakfast, all day, will soon be here. All that's needed is a change to a new "flexible operating system."

If I were the CEO of McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD), I'd be slapping myself on the forehead. Doh! Why didn't they figure this out sooner? Hello? Customers don't like to be told, "no, you can't have that which you most desire. We made a rule. Breakfast 'til 10:30, not a moment later!" Customers don't come to fast food restaurants because they're looking for discipline, limits, lessons in punctuality. They come to fast food restaurants to satisfy a desire, to indulge their longings for fat, crispy, sweet, bacony sausagey eggy...

That's why I, a health nut, a disbeliever in fast food, might now buy MCD stock. Because offering breakfast all day is an indication that management gets it. McDonald's stock was up 37 cents to $38.15, a 1% increase and a few cents from its 52-week high, on the news today.

Breakfast all day: why a health nut might buy McDonald's originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I participated in a panel discussion at a conference on Saturday with a couple of young, smart, geeky teenagers -- i.e., the absolute center of most marketers' universe. These girls, Iris and Sheena, were the very definition of "early adopter" and "Generation Y" all rolled into one, a tiny yet brilliant focus group on the future of technology, social networking, and the internet.

Someone asked if Iris had a blog, and she said, "I hate to say this, but [pause] MySpace." She and Sheena both related how they checked out their MySpace accounts daily to see if friends had tried to contact them. For the two of them, both from lower-income families and members of under-represented minority groups, their technology lives consisted of homework, their podcasts, and MySpace.

If I were less of an analytical sort, I'd immediately say that MySpace is clearly winning the social networking arena. The site has the teenagers! What's more, it has hours each day of attention from these girls, from my youngest sister, my babysitter -- all of the 13- to 25-year-old demographic, really. But then I thought for an instant more, and I realized that Iris and Sheena were both the perfect example of MySpace's market domination and the reason why Microsoft, AOL, and Google will always win the race for ad dollars.

There's no money in these teenagers' MySpace behavior.

Continue reading MySpace: still cool, but Microsoft, AOL, Google monetize better

MySpace: still cool, but Microsoft, AOL, Google monetize better originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I was once a teenager. Really. And I think I was, well, kind of uncool. I was actually a cheerleader, which was totally not cool in the late 80s and early 90s. I wore acid-wash jeans and shoulder pads and penny loafers, which were cool. Then.

So when I tell you that this new Wal-Mart thing is uncool, I should know. Because it looks a lot like me, in 1987. That girl on the left here, in one of the videos on Wal-Mart's new The Hub social networking site for teens, she looks eerily like my best friend, Courtney. Wearing the exact same clothes. Let me say this: in 2006, that is not a good thing.

No, Wal-Mart isn't showing video from the 80s. It's trying to become some cool locale for tweens and teens. You know, where they can discuss fashion and music and -- well, probably not sex. As Brian White pointed out last week, there are so many rules about what teens can do with the home pages the company hopes they will create on the MySpace-type The Hub, why would any cool, edgy teen want to play here? To show off their facility navigating the fashion wasteland of the retail giant's stores?

According to Bob Garfield of Advertising Age, "If well-executed, such an effort might cultivate individual users, gather market intelligence on the group, destigmatize Wal-Mart as a declasse purveyor of unfashionable clothing and establish a beachhead on the web for the fast-approaching digital future ... [but] it's totally not well-executed. It's the most not-well-executed ever."

"We shouldn't tuck anything in, it's so not cool anymore," says the pink-tee and acid-wash-jeans clad "Ashley" on her featured video (clearly not produced, or written, by a teenaged girl named "Ashley"). Nope. And neither are you, Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart: so, like, totally, not cool originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.