Article Excerpt:
TWST: Neely, give us some idea of what you are covering in the apparel space.Ms. Tamminga: We are covering the women's apparel, accessories, luxury goods and home furnishings subgroups in specialty retailing for Piper Jaffray, which would include Nordstrom (JWN), Chico's FAS (CHS), Talbots (TLB), Urban Outfitters (URBN), Coach (COH), and AnnTaylor (ANN).
TWST: What's been going on in the group from a business perspective?
Ms. Tamminga: Over the last three years, the specialty apparel retailers
have benefited from a very strong apparel cycle and fashion trends.
Broad democratic trends like woven shirts and denim jeans have been
widely accepted and have really been driving sales and margins. As a
result, these retailers have returned to peak productivity and peak
margins from trough levels. So it has been quite a bit of recovery for
the group overall.
TWST: Now that they have recovered, where do we go from here?
Ms. Tamminga: There are still some company-specific situations that keep
us interested in the space. We believe that investors need to look at
this space for stock selectivity ' not buying the group as a package.
Tickers included in this excerpt: AEOS, ANN, CHS, COH, JWN, L, NWY, TGT, TLB, URBN
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