Major market benchmarks rose on Tuesday as investors mulled the start of another corporate earnings season.
There were several individual stocks that handily outpaced the rest. Read on to learn why Stitch Fix (SFIX -1.79%), Casa Systems (CASA -11.59%), and Simply Good Foods (SMPL -1.01%) soared today.
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A vote of confidence in Stitch Fix
Shares of Stitch Fix climbed 6% in the wake of KeyBanc's Ed Yruma initiating coverage on the personalized apparel specialist at overweight. Keeping in mind Stitch Fix was already up over 60% since the start of June -- a happy consequence of both a strong quarterly report and subsequent optimism surrounding the stock -- Yruma also assigned a $38-per-share price target, or a more-than-20% premium from Stitch Fix's Monday close.
In particular, the analyst believes that Stitch Fix's data-centric model gives the company a "significant advantage" over traditional apparel and retail competitors, affording it the ability to "build a scalable, yet highly human, recommendation model." Stitch Fix should be able to take more market share in its primary women's business, he reasons, while driving accelerated growth from its supplementary men's, plus-sized, and kid-centric offerings going forward.
Simply Good Foods' earnings surprise
Simply Good Foods stock popped 11.4% after the branded nutritional food and snack company announced better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter 2018 results.
Simply Good Foods' quarterly revenue increased 11.1% year over year to $107.2 million. That translated to net income of $7.1 million, or $0.10 per share, up from $5.4 million, or $0.07 per share in the same year-ago period. By comparison, most investors were only anticipating earnings of $0.09 per share on revenue of $102.2 million.
CEO Joseph Scalzo credited the fruits of strategic initiatives focused on marketing investments, refreshed packaging, and new products for the company's strong results.
Casa Systems gets an thumbs-up
Finally, shares of Casa Systems soared 8.5% following an upgrade from analysts at Morgan Stanley to overweight from equal weight. Morgan Stanley also assigned a $23-per-share price target on the ultra-broadband solutions company, for a roughly 40% premium from yesterday's close.
To justify their relative optimism, Morgan Stanley analyst Meta Marshal argued that Casa Systems is "well-positioned" for the second half as customers upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 and next-generation architectures, and as the market grows more comfortable with the recently public company's track record.
With shares trading nearly 50% below their 52-week high set in March -- including a post-earnings plunge in May despite what CEO Jerry Guo called a "strong" quarter -- it's hardly surprising to see some opportunistic investors bid up Casa Systems.
