True Religion (NASDAQ: TRLG) may have it all wrong.
Instead of exploring strategic alternatives that may result in an outright sale of the company, now may be a good time to be remain a publicly traded maker of premium denim.
Joe's Jeans (NASDAQ: JOEZ) traded nearly 8% higher this morning -- before giving it all back -- after posting better-than-expected quarterly results.
The maker of high-end casual wear posted a quarterly profit of $0.02 a share as net sales soared 25% to $30.3 million. Analysts were bracing for a small deficit on a mere 15% top-line spurt.
Joe's Jeans is hitting well on its wholesale and retail businesses.
Its wholesale business advanced 26% during the period, helped out by strong gains in its fashions for men, and the rollout earlier this year of Else -- a brand of lower-priced denim sold exclusively at Macy's (M +2.82%) -- for women.
Retail sales continue to be a small part of Joe's Jeans business as it builds out its namesake stores, but it's a category worth watching. Retail sales climbed as expansion and a 7% spike in comps combined to deliver 24% growth for the period.
The economy's slow yet improving ways are paying off as the company's full-priced retail stores actually checked in with a hearty 7% pop in same-store sales. Joe's Jeans has spent the past couple of years opening more outlet locations than full-priced stores, but that may be changing. Just one of the four stores that Joe's Jeans will open this quarter will be a deal-slinging outlet location.
This is a good time for Joe's Jeans despite its tiny stock price. Fashions can be fickle, but upscale yoga apparel retailer lululemon athletica (LULU +5.00%) is proving that you can make a lot of money selling premium-priced clothing to well-to-do shoppers.
Obviously, we can't compare Joe's Jeans to lululemon. Joe's is starting to post head-turning growth, but it's nowhere near the kind of torrid top-line bursts and store-level comps that lululemon has been dishing out in recent years. However, it also won't take a lot in terms of positive catalysts to move the maker of skinny jeans and its even skinnier share price.
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