Victoria´s Secret leads Limited Brands gains

Limited Brands has beaten Wall Street expectations of 2.6 same-stores sales growth with a 3 percent sales hike in February and led by the group lingerie divisions. Both Victoria´s Secret and La Senza reported comparable stores sales up by 5 percent.

The increase was especially good news for La Senza, as this January was the first month when comparable-store sales at the lingerie chain rose by more than 1 percent, stressed AFP.

La Senza has struggled since Limited Brands bought the chain in 2006. Last year, Martin Waters, executive vice president of international at Limited Brands, pointed out that “We’ve changed just about everything about the brand.” “We changed the positioning. We changed the category focus. We changed the assortment, the store design. We’ve really changed everything, relocated the team from Montreal to Columbus, and it’s almost like starting a complete new business,” Waters added at the time.

Meanwhile, sales at Victoria’s Secret Direct, which includes catalogue and online businesses, fell by 4 percent on a decline in clearance selling, said Amie Preston, chief of investor relations. In the same vein, Easter Sunday falls in March this year, not April as it was last year, and the company expects that will have a negative impact on sales this month. “We are projecting March comparable-store sales in line with our quarterly guidance of low single digit,” Preston advanced.

On the wake of the news, analysts at Trefis stated that “Although Victoria’s Secret’s same store sales growth stood just at 3 percent in the fourth quarter, the figure was higher at 7 percent for fiscal 2012. The temporary weakness could not offset an otherwise good year for Victoria’s Secret. We expect its good performance to continue in the current quarter with increased focus on seasonal products such as dream angels collection and spring break essentials in PINK.”

The Columbus, Ohio-based retailer said net sales rose to 712.7 million dollars from 653.9 million dollars for the four weeks ended Feb. 25, 2012.

Limited Brands stock (NYSE: LTD) had its ‘outperform’ rating reaffirmed by RBC Capital in a research note issued on Friday. They currently have a 53 dollars price target on the stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Analysts at Zacks reiterated a ‘neutral’ rating on shares of Limited Brands in a research note to investors on Tuesday. They have a lower price target - 47 dollars - on the stock. Separately, analysts at Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Limited Brands from 48 to 47 dollars in a research note to investors released earlier in March. They now have a ‘neutral’.