UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Initiates Coverage on Children's Place Retail Stores with Neutral Rating, $49 PT on Fair Valuation

In a report published Wednesday, Piper Jaffray analyst Stephanie S. Wissink initiated coverage on Children's Place Retail Stores

with a Neutral rating and $49.00 price target. In the report, Wissink noted, “We are initiating coverage of The Children's Place with a Neutral rating based on our view that shares fairly reflect expected sales and margin recovery over the next 12 months. We view the opportunity for recovery as attractive, given currently depressed sales and margin rates, but note that key profitability measures have further contracted into FY14, despite sales being down only low single digits, which suggests the operating model may be more constrained and leverage might be more difficult to achieve in the time horizon currently implied by a mid-teens forward year multiple. Our $49 PT is based on 14x FY15E EPS.” Children's Place Retail Stores closed on Tuesday at $50.26.