UPDATE: Sterne Agee Upgrades Shoe Carnival to Buy on Square Footage Growth

Sterne Agee raised its rating on Shoe Carnival SCVL from Neutral to Buy and established a $28 price target. Sterne Agee commented, "After spending three days with the CFO of SCVL we once again are constructive on the company. Our downgrade to neutral in late August was valuation based. We did not see new information that warranted maintaining our Buy rating. We now realize that we had underestimated the company's square footage growth and the leverage potential on modest SSS increases. We do believe that SCVL needs to improve the branding of the company in order to help reduce its future store opening costs." Shoe Carnival closed at $22.65 on Monday.