Piper Jaffray Maintains Neutral Rating On Staples, Inc. (SPLS)

Piper Jaffray is out with a report, where it maintains its “neutral” rating on shares of Staple, Inc. (SPLS); it has set a price target of $24.00 on the stock. With Staples expected to report second quarter results in the next couple of days, the analysts at Piper Jaffray are maintaining its 2Q EPS estimate of $0.19. Piper Jaffray writes, “We estimate that total sales will be +3.3% y/y, GM will be +15bps y/y and y/y SG&A leverage of 17bps.” Industrial production has continued to rise from Q1, and in Q2 was up 7.2% y/y. Analysts noted, “We view this as a potential positive for SPLS as the y/y change in this data has the second highest correlation with SPLS' retail comp and contract sales.” Shares of SPLS closed yesterday at $19.40.