Piper Jaffray Downgrades CBK To Neutral

Piper Jaffray has downgraded Christopher & Banks Corporation

to Neutral based on 2Q earnings that were below estimates. In its research report, Piper Jaffray writes "FQ2 sales below our estimate following poor August results. Same store sales were up 1% in FQ3, below our estimate of +6% and management's expectations for "in-line or better than +5%". It appears that sales noticeably dropped off in August as the customer responded poorly to its early Fall deliveries. Although conversion improved y/y in FQ2, this was more than offset by a decline in traffic, resulting in a decrease in transactions y/y. Average-ticket-price increased in FQ2, driven by an increase in units-per-transaction which was slightly offset by a decline in average-unit-retail." Piper Jaffray has also lowered the price target from $14 to $9. Christopher & Banks Corp. closed yesterday at $7.91.