Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Calls of Note Part 5

- Piper Jaffray is positive on Crocs (NASDAQ:CROX) saying they remain confident in their FQ4 sales and EPS estimates as the core Crocs business remains robust and checks suggest strong retail sales trends. The "classic" beach/Cayman continue to decline as a percentage of sales, resulting from strong consumer adoption of new styles. A recent survey of retailers and company-owned kiosks leads the firm to believe Crocs are favored as a holiday gift-giving item. They are raising their FY07 sales & EPS estimates in view of the timing of the Jibbitz acquisition (closed 12/5) and the planned introduction of roughly 10 new spring styles. Firm expects product detail and product flow visibility to improve near-term as the company formally introduces its new spring collection at the Fashion Footwear Association of New York show in New York this week.

Believes sales of classic Crocs and Disney styles in both Europe and Asia are comfortably above initial forecasts. Firm is conservatively modeling an additional $0.05 for Jibbitz in FY07 based on the current estimated door count. They expect to monitor door count expansion as the year progresses and believe Jibbitz could add up to $0.10-$0.15 to FY07 EPS.

Tgt goes to $53 from $51. Maintains Outperform.

Notablecalls: Think Piper is trying to pull an UARM here. Lets see if it works.

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