Dress Barn, Inc.

Dress Barn, Inc. (DBRN - Snapshot Report) is finding profits in its value priced women's fashion as same store sales rose in the fiscal third quarter. The company recently raised 2009 guidance.

Company Description

Dress Barn is a specialty retailer providing career and casual fashions for women. The company has two brands, dressbarn stores and maurice stores. It operates 842 dressbarns in 47 states and 707 maurice stores in 44 states.

Comparable Store Sales Rise 3% in Fiscal Third Quarter

On May 21, Dress Barn reported third-quarter results that surprised on analysts' estimates by 25.81%, or 8 cents a share. Net income was $23.9 million, or 39 cents per share compared to $24.9 million, or 39 cents, in the year ago quarter.

Total sales rose 7% to $375.7 million from $352.6 million. Comparable store sales rose 3% and were driven by sales at the maurices chain which saw comparable store sales climb 5% while net sales jumped 12%.

The dressbarn segment also saw sales growth of 3%, with a gain of 2% for comparable store sales in the quarter.

Third quarter results were driven by a strong spring selling season and aggressive control over inventory.

2009 Guidance Raised

Given the strong third quarter, Dress Barn raised its Fiscal 2009 forecast to the range of $1.00 to $1.05 from its previous Feb 18 guidance of 70 cents to 85 cents per share.

The company projects a flat to low single digit increase in comparable store sales in the fourth quarter.

Estimates Jump

Given the revised guidance, fourth quarter and full year estimates have moved quickly higher.

Fourth-quarter estimates rose 7 cents to 37 cents in the last 30 days.

Full-year estimates gained 14% to $1.05 from 92 cents in the last 30 days, with 4 out of 5 covering analysts raising during that period. That is at the high end of the company's forecasted range.

Value Fundamentals

Dress Barn is a Zacks #1 Rank (strong buy) stock. It has a forward P/E of 14.12 and a price-to-book of 1.50. The company has a 5-year return on equity (ROE) of 16.24%.