William Blair Reiterates Outperform Rating on Zumiez (ZUMZ)

William Blair & Co. is out with an analyst note this morning that is reiterating their Outperform rating on shares of Zumiez Inc.

; they cited May same store sales, which increased 7.1%, versus -20.7% a year ago; this was nicely ahead of their 4%-to-5% projection and consensus expectations for a 4% gain. May’s SSS marked a nice up tick from April’s 2% comp gain as well. Moreover, Zumiez posted such strong results despite the calendar shift of Memorial Day into June, which management estimates penalized May’s comps by a few hundred basis points. Total sales in the month increased 12.1% to $26.3 million. Analysts said that “May’s comps gain was driven primarily by an increase in transactions, as dollars per transaction were down, driven by a decrease in average unit retail partly offset by an increase in units per transaction. By category, men’s, accessories, and boy’s posted positive results, while comps were negative in hardgoods, juniors, and footwear.” William Blair estimates closed by saying “We continue to see value in shares, as Zumiez increasingly appears to be on the right path to recapturing an estimated $1-plus in earnings power on the current store base, versus estimated 2010 EPS of $0.51. We reiterate our Outperform rating.”