UPDATE: Jefferies & Company Reiterates Buy Rating, Raises PT on Five Below

In a report published Friday, Jefferies & Company reiterated its Buy rating on Five Below FIVE, and raised its price target from $40.00 to $42.00. Jefferies noted, “We are maintaining our Buy rating on FIVE shares following the Q3 earnings release, and raising our price target from $40 to $42. Despite having to clear storm hurdles early in the quarter and dealing with some supply chain disruptions, this management team appears to be navigating the important Q4 period well thus far. Regardless of the near-term impact of the storms, we think this growth story is intact and the earnings power for next year is at least as good as we thought pre storm; we are actually moving estimates up slightly for next year. Meanwhile, this management team's conservative approach seems to have given it the wiggle room it needed to provide Q4 guidance, which was consistent with prior expectations. Clearly Sandy zapped some of the upside we might normally expect, but we are pleased to say that our Q4 EPS estimate is unchanged at $0.37. In the last month as the stock retreated there was a lot of hand wringing around the storm and potential impact to the business. Now that this is behind us and guidance is reasonable, we think shares have a clear runway for takeoff.” Five Below closed on Thursday at $31.39.