Jos. A. Bank Soars After Q2 Report

Jos. A. Bank

released its fiscal second quarter earnings results prior to the opening bell on Wednesday. Prior to today's results, the stock had been trending persistently lower throughout 2012. Shares hit a year-to-date high in late March at just below $55.00 and have subsequently been falling. On Wednesday, however, traders have been reacting to a strong earnings report, pushing the stock up better than 15% to above $48.00. The sharp rise in the stock has erased most of the year-to-date losses for JOSB. Currently, shares are down a little more than 1% in 2012 after Wednesday's big pop. The company reported a 12.7% increase in net income for the fiscal second quarter. Income was $23.2 million or $0.83 per share, versus $20.6 million or $0.74 in last year's second quarter. This exceeded Wall Street analysts' consensus EPS estimates of $0.73 by a wide margin. Total sales in the quarter were up 12.9% to $260.3 million, compared to $230.7 million last year. This also came in better than the consensus Wall Street estimate of $251.08 million. Comparable store sales at Jos. A. Bank were up 6.1%, highlighting the company's strong operating momentum in the quarter. Management also updated its forward-looking plans for the company. Jos. A. Bank now believes that the chain can grow to approximately 800 total stores. This is above a prior assessment which the company provided several years ago which said that the chain could grow to 650 to 675 total stores.