Piper Jaffray Reports Improving Growth Trend On Wet Seal

According to Piper Jaffray, Wet Seal WTSLA is seeing improving comp trend. Piper Jaffray reported that it maintains its Neutral rating on WTSLA following the company's FQ4 results. EPS of $0.06 slightly exceeded PJC and consensus estimates of $0.05. “FQ1 comp guidance of +MSD to +HSD is being propelled by strong fashion and sales momentum that started in FQ4. While the 2-year trend provides for easy comparisons until November, we remain on the sidelines until more consistency and margin stability is visible. With a new CEO and COO, we are also waiting to see if any new strategic plans develop in the near term. We've lowered our FY12E EPS from $0.22 to $0.21 but our $4 price target remains the same. We adjusted our FY12E EPS as follows: FQ1 from $0.08 to $0.07; FQ2 from $0.03 to $0.02; FQ3 from $0.05 to $0.04; FQ4 from $0.07 to $0.08; and FY12E from $0.22 to $0.21. Our price target remains constant at $4 based on 20x FY12E EPS.” Wet Seal closed yesterday at $3.55.