Wedbush Maintains Outperform on ANN

Wedbush is out with its report today on ANN ANN, maintaining Outperform. In a note to clients, Wedbush writes, "With promotions pre-planned at ATS and expectations for sequential comp acceleration at Loft (particularly in the retail channel), our 'back-of-the-envelope' analysis of gross margin suggests that management's guidance for gross margin remains intact. In fact, we believe with current expectations for gross margin degradation of ~50 bp in Q2, any margin level above that could drive shares higher. Thus, we maintain our OUTPERFORM rating and recommend investors buy on recent weakness as ANN stock has underperformed since June with shares down (9)% vs. +2% for the group." Wedbush maintains a $38 PT on ANN. Shares of ANN closed Wednesday at $26.13, up 3.49% from Tuesday's close.