Shares of AnnTaylor Stores Corp. (NYSE: ANN) jumped more than 8.55% in today�s trading. The stock reached a high of $22.05 in trading. It closed 8.55% higher at $21.96, with volume up from daily average of 2.48 million to 5.23 million. New York City-based AnnTaylor is a specialty retailer.
The spike in the stock came after the company reported its first-quarter results. The company reported diluted EPS of $0.38. In the same period last year, the company reported a loss per share of $0.04. Net sales increase from $426.7 million to $476.2 million. Same-store sales increased 14.1% in the quarter. Kay Krill, president and CEO of AnnTaylor said that fiscal year 2010 has been off to an excellent start. Krill said that the results were driven by a positive response from clients to its spring collections. He said that the company will continue to focus on delivering strong gross margins and manage inventory levels. The company ended the first quarter in strong financial position, with $207 million in cash and cash equivalents.
For the second quarter, the company is expecting total net sales to reach $500 million. Gross margin is expected to improve 250 basis points over the second quarter of 2009. For the full year, the company is expecting sales to reach $1.950-$1.975 billion. The company is expecting gross margin improvement of 150 basis points for the full year.
With a 52-week range of $6.33-$25.54, AnnTaylor stock has seen a lot of price fluctuations in the past year. The stock has a beta of 1.88, which gain implies that it has been volatile. Currently, the stock is trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. The stock has 5 Buy and 3 Outperform ratings against 7 Hold and 1 Sell rating.
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