Barclays Maintains an 'Overweight' on AnnTaylor Stores (ANN); Confident Coming Out of Ann Taylor and LOFT Fall Line Preview

Barclays maintains an 'Overweight' on AnnTaylor Stores (NYSE: ANN), PT $36.

Barclays analyst says, "Yesterday we attended ANN Inc.'s fall line preview and came away generally impressed with the product at both brands...Key points from the line review are: Inventory Flexibility. It sounded to us like ANN Inc. may have more inventory flexibility than originally anticipated. Original guidance called for inventories to be up about the same degree that it was at year end (+mid teens/foot) with Ann Taylor up in the 15-20% range on a dollar basis and LOFT up low single digits. Our sense is some of the increase at ATS reflects a larger investment in classic suiting (meant to live throughout the season) and excluding that, inventories at ATS were expected up less than 10%."

"...We think ANN Inc. is a solid second half story with a clean balance sheet and believe the company is well positioned competitively as it is one of the few companies in the group with flat sourcing costs in the second half."

For more ratings news on AnnTaylor Stores click here and for the rating history of AnnTaylor Stores click here.

Shares of AnnTaylor Stores closed at $28.08 yesterday.

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