Benzinga's Retail Roundup (TIF, JCG, LTD, GES, CONN)

Today, most of the retail stocks are trading up largely supported by strong earnings reported by Tiffany & Co. and J. Crew.

Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) rose 45 to $43.49 after reported a larger-than-expected quarterly profit as the upscale jeweler contained costs and benefited from stronger sales in Asia and Europe. Tiffany reported third quarter sales fell 3% to $598.2 million from $616.2 million a year ago. Net income in the quarter fell 1% to $43.3 million or 35 cents per diluted share compared to net income of $43.8 million or 35 cents per share a year ago.

J. Crew Group, Inc. (NYSE: JCG) climbed 7.54% to $43.93 after JCG’s profit more than doubled in the third quarter as sales rose by a double-digit percentage. It said Tuesday that its gross margin grew to 48.4 percent of revenue from 41.6 percent a year ago. Revenue rose 14 percent to $414.1 million from $363.1 million. Analysts had expected $408 million.

Other retailers which are trading up include Limited Brands, Inc. (NYSE: LTD) rose 4.39% to $17.37. So far this year, LTD is up over 73%.

Guess?, Inc. (NYSE: GES) also moved up 5.10% to $37.89. GES gained over 146% in 2009 so far.

However, CONN'S, Inc. (NASDAQ: CONN) fell 12.78% to $5.53 after CONN reported adjusted Q3 loss of $0.29, versus the analyst estimate of ($0.04). Revenue for the quarter was $182.8 million, which compares to the estimate of $191.67 million.