Goldman Sachs Discusses The Children's Place After Analyst Day

Goldman Sachs is out with a research note on The Children's Place Retail Stores, Inc. PLCE after the company hosted an analyst day yesterday. It has a Buy rating and a $60 price target on shares. In a note to clients, Goldman writes, "On the product side, PLCE has several key initiatives which started in 1Q. On one hand, we would have liked to see greater initial improvement from these, as 1Q comps only improved 300 bp from a soft Holiday. That said, PLCE has numerous initiatives to drive comps and margins such as (1) growing penetration of seasonal basics, which have a longer full price shelf life vs. fashion goods, (2) reducing SKU redundancy, which lowers markdowns, (3) more differentiation of big vs. little kids, which can help retain older shoppers, and (4) capitalizing on other top-line opportunities such as selling more gifting, holiday goods (such as Halloween) and increasing licensed goods (like Justin Bieber and Hello Kitty merchandise)." Shares of PLCE lost 10 cents yesterday to close at $45.89, a loss of 0.22%.