An Alternate Way To Play The Vera Bradley IPO (COH, VRA)

Shares of Vera Bradley VRA are jumping today, as the maker of women's handbags had its IPO today. It's not trading at around $23 after it priced at $16, which was the high end of the range. The company had expected to price in the $14-$16 range. If you believe in the strength of women's handbags, then perhaps Coach COH would be an alternative way to approach this sector, as it is the premiere name brand in the sector. Coach has a 1.4% yield, and is trading at 15.1 times forward earnings, not cheap, but not overpriced either. It has extremely strong return on equity, at just over 45%. It's reasonably cheap, with a 1.14 price to earnings growth (PEG) ratio. Revenues are growing at 34% year over year, fairly healthy for a luxury brand. The luxury portion of the retail sector has not been hit nearly has hard as the rest of the sector, and this could be potentially a way to capture some profits from a well to do consumer. Disclosure: no positions