Furniture and accessories retailer Cost Plus World Market (CPWM) retains its Sell recommendation this morning from Zacks senior retail industry analyst Rob Plaza, CFA. We looked into his latest research report to find the details:
'Cost Plus' third quarter EPS were better than expected, and management's guidance for the fourth quarter was in line with our prior forecast. Still, we continue to believe that the company's turnaround efforts will fail to gain traction because of the difficult headwinds facing home furnishings retailers. Those headwinds, which include housing, gas prices and the credit markets, should persist for the next several quarters.
'Until the housing market shows signs of stabilizing, we would avoid CPWM shares. We rate the stock a Sell with a target price of $2.00, which is 8x our fiscal year 2009 EPS estimate.
'The company's business prospects remain weak and are not expected to improve for at least a few quarters. Moreover, we are estimating losses for Cost Plus until fiscal 2009. Our EPS estimate for fiscal 2009 is $0.24. As such, CPWM shares are trading at 12.9x our fiscal 2009 earnings estimate.
'Given the difficult environment for home furnishings retailers, this valuation may turn out to be optimistic. We think the stock could go much lower. Our target price is about 8x our fiscal 2009 EPS estimate.'
Read the full analyst report on CPWM.
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