Zumiez Shares Jumped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of teen retailer Zumiez (Nasdaq: ZUMZ  ) zoomed 11% higher on Thursday after its monthly same-store sales easily topped Wall Street expectations.

So what: The company's same-store sales growth in September was so strong -- 10.1% versus the 3.2% consensus -- that it prompted management to raise its third-quarter outlook. Zumiez shares have been battered in recent months on concerns over slowing growth, but today's results suggest that Mr. Market may have been a little too worried.

Now what: Don't let today's pop prevent you from looking into Zumiez. For the current quarter, management now sees per-share earnings of $0.40-$0.41 on sales of $150 million-$152 million, versus the average analyst estimate of $0.37-$39 on a top line of $149.3 million. And with Zumiez still expected to grow its earnings at a brisk annual rate of 20% over the next five years -- almost twice as fast as peers like American Eagle (NYSE: AEO  ) and Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO  ) -- the long-term doesn't seem too shabby, either.

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