With the gift-giving season fast approaching (here comes Black Friday), what better time to revisit a retailer's recent earnings? Last week, Too Inc. (NYSE: TOO) reported soaring profits, and what better way to kick off the holiday season? For the short term, one might hope that it can only get better from here, considering current success.
Too, which many remember from the days before it was spun off by Limited (NYSE: LTD), was definitely a strong beneficiary of back-to-school sales, which were spotty for many retailers. Too provides clothing for girls aged 7 to 14, the well-known (and perhaps infamous) "tweeners."
Its third-quarter net income more than doubled to $11.5 million, or $0.33 per share. Sales jumped a whopping 20% to $174.9 million, with same-store sales increasing by 11%. Longtime Fool Rick Munarriz saw the writing on the wall back in October, when Too's same-store sales figures held a promising outlook for yearly earnings.
A quick peek at the company's balance sheet and cash flow statement shows that cash and equivalents increased 7% to $122.7 million. Foolish investors might like the fact that free cash flow for the first nine months of the year was $9.2 million, a vast improvement over last year at this time, when the company had negative free cash flow.
Among the things investors will want to continue watching is how Too's low-cost offshoot, Justice, does. Justice is meant to appeal to value-conscious tweeners. (Or rather, it may be the parents, who have their hands on the wallets, who are the value-conscious ones.)
According to the company's conference call, Justice is still reporting a "small" operating loss, which was within Too's expectations. With a current store count of 33, though, the expanding concept certainly bodes watching. So far, the company believes Justice competes with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Target (NYSE: TGT), Kohl's (NYSE: KSS), and Gap's (NYSE: GPS) Old Navy. They think that so far, Wal-Mart is bearing the brunt of the Justice launch, as opposed to there being a cannibalization of its own Limited Too sales.
In its conference call, the company underlined its conservative guidance for same-store sales, saying that this year it lacks certain catalysts, such as a promotion program it had with McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) last year; it will also skip its post-Thanksgiving sale.
Investors eyeing a stake in Too should keep in mind that the stock price has been steadily marching upward, and it's currently trading at a forward P/E of 22. Although there's plenty to like about Too, one might wonder whether it's a little late to call it a bargain.
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Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.
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