Back in August, Children's Place (NASDAQ:PLCE) reported second-quarter results that looked as if it may have lost its grip and tumbled from the monkey bars. At the same time, the clothing retailer's shares also took a nasty spill, seesawing from $45 at the beginning of August to a bottom near $35 in mid-October. Fortunately for shareholders -- including myself -- the ride back up has been even sharper, with the stock rising 33% over the last month to reach a peak of almost $50 Thursday.

Meanwhile, over that same three months, the company was busy moving merchandise off the shelves, as net sales for the third quarter jumped 57% to $441.1 million. Most of those gains -- $121.1 million to be exact -- came courtesy of the Disney Stores, which were acquired last November. However, revenues at the company's namesake outlets were up a solid 14% and have risen 17% on a year-to-date basis. Excluding a one-time gain associated with the Disney Stores purchase, adjusted earnings climbed 48% to $0.96 per share -- topping estimates by a nickel.

Children's Place has now beaten analysts' forecasts for five consecutive quarters (that I can remember) -- despite one upward revision in guidance after another. Like a fast-growing toddler whose clothes are always a little too tight, Children's Place seems to outgrow its internal earnings targets every few months. Late last year, the company bumped up its full-year earnings growth projection from 40% to 60% to 80% before finally posting an impressive 85% increase.

This year has been more of the same. The initial bottom-line prediction for fiscal 2005 was $2.05 and has since been raised to a range of $2.10 to $2.20, then to $2.15 to $2.25, then again to $2.25 to $2.30, and now finally to $2.35 to $2.40. Even the low end of that range would represent a 50% improvement over the $1.57 earned last year.

While the company continues to expand -- opening 19 Children's Place stores and 13 Disney ones last quarter alone -- much of its recent success stems from healthy organic growth. After the company routinely posted some of the industry's strongest same-store sales figures in 2004, year-over-year comparisons are challenging. Nevertheless, every operating region turned in a positive performance during the quarter, which pushed comps ahead 6% -- on top of a robust 18% gain in the same period last year.

Though the number of transactions leveled off last quarter, shoppers did ring up a 6% larger ticket on average. Meanwhile, after lagging behind its larger rival for quite some time, Gymboree (NASDAQ:GYMB) has gained some traction in the comps department as well, reporting gains of 9% and 10% in the last two quarters.

Like other retailers, Children's Place is gearing up for the critical holiday season. During the holidays last year, revenues nearly doubled, helped by e-commerce operations, whose sales shot up 90% in the final week of November last year following a 100% rise the year before. Already the company has gotten off to a fast start, as October comps were up 13%, trouncing estimates of a meager 2.8% gain.

Looks like it might almost be time for Children's Place to try on some larger guidance again. And with a PEG ratio of just 0.8, the stock may have room to grow as well.

Here's a couple more to try on:

Fool contributor Nathan Slaughter owns shares of Children's Place. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.