Piper Jaffray's Active and Healthy Lifestyle Trends Slow Mildly Overall

Piper Jaffray published an active and healthy lifestyle industry overview report stating that overall retail sales for December continued on the upward trajectory. In the research report, Piper Jaffray said, “On a year over year basis, December sales increased 6.5%, a mild deceleration from the 7.0% gain in November. Specific areas of accelerating growth include clothing/accessories stores, furniture/electronics/appliance stores and sporting goods stores all increased 85bps or more from the November growth rates. We believe the consumer is getting some relief from gas prices and moderating food inflation. As consumer confidence builds, we believe this bodes particularly well for COST (

), DKS (

), TFM (

) and WFM (

) within our coverage.” Piper Jaffray's current ratings are as follows: Costco

Overweight, $97.00 PT, closed Friday at $80.61. Dicks Sporting Goods

Overweight, $49.00 PT, closed Friday at $40.18. The Fresh Market

Neutral, $40.00 PT, closed Friday at $39.73. Piper Whole Foods Market, Inc.

, Overweight, $82.00 PT, closed Friday at $73.69.