If your idea of the best way to travel involves an Arbor Fish longboard, or a Burton Chopper, then there is an outfit in Everett, Washington that has your basics and all your accessories, too.

Zumiez (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) is a mall-based specialty retailer of sports-related apparel and equipment. Apparel offerings carry such brand names as Billabong, Burton, Hurley and Quiksilver, as well as private labels. The equipment includes skateboards, snowboards, boots, bindings, and miscellaneous novelties. Stores cater to young people, between the ages of 12 and 24. The firm operates 266 outlets, in 22 states.

Zumiez pleased investors last week, when it announced Q2 EPS of 11 cents and revenues of $82 million. Analysts had been expecting 8 cents and $79.3 million. Management also guided FY08 EPS to 97-99 cents (97 cent consensus). The news helped pop the shares out of a mid-August "cup" into the late August "handle" of a Cup & Handle formation. The price is now showing signs of completing the pattern with a bullish rise from the right-hand side of the "handle."

Brokers recommend the shares with five "strong buys," four "buys" and four "holds." Analysts see a 29% average annual growth rate, through the next five years. The ZUMZ Sales Growth rate (46.95%), EPS Growth rate (83.33%), Return on Assets (14.03%), Return on Investment (19.61%) and Return on Equity (22.12%) compare favorably with industry, sector and S&P 500 averages. Institutional investors hold about 91% of the outstanding shares. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock has traded between $20.00 and $48.10. A stop-loss of $39.00 looks good here.

Larry Schutts is a contributing editor for Theflyonthewall.com and the Vice-President of Stockwinners.com.

Zumiez (ZUMZ): Gear for the action sports crowd originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Jawed Karim is supplying one answer to the question, "what if one of the market's biggest success stories was your idea... but no one knew your name?" For him, the answer is, "tell everyone!"

Karim was a co-founder of YouTube, along with Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. The general concept for the site, he says, was all his. But he stepped back from day-to-day involvement once the company became formal enough to have job titles, opting instead to embrace the student lifestyle once again. Once he went back to Stanford, he "advised" YouTube while his former PayPal colleagues did most of the legwork.

When Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) came a-knocking, Karim wasn't involved at all, although it seems as if he's going to benefit from the $1.7 billion price tag; he did retain an ownership stake in YouTube.

So now Karim has money (twice over, as all three co-founders made money when PayPal was bought by eBay, Inc. in 2002). He has that sense of pride and personal satisfaction that you must feel when your brainchild is considered and found a-billion-and-change-worth of worthy by the market. What he doesn't have, though, is fame.

Why don't you make a movie about it, Karim? You could put it on this thing called YouTube ...

Riches, sense of pride not enough for 3rd YouTube founder originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Oct 2006 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.