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Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) has a winning 'accessible luxury' formula, which is why I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for company, first recommended on April 13, 2009 at a price of $18.22. If you bought COH in April, you're up an impressive 71%.

Most investors are aware that in the era of the 'frugal consumer' that's driven by stagnant incomes, difficult labor market conditions, and an uncertain economic recovery timetable, the retail sector is best avoided.

Coach is a retail survivor. If you purchased Coach in April, you're up an enormous 64%. Not bad, for the worst U.S. recession in more than a generation.

I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Coach (NYSE: COH), first recommended on April 13, 2009 at a price of $18.22.

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) reported a surprise profit but is expected to return to losses next quarter.
• Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) profit and revenue were in line with expectations, sending shares lower.
• Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) posted better-than-expected earnings but other concerns drove down shares.
• eHealth Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) reported solid Q2 numbers but Wall Street was not impressed.
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE: GT) posted a smaller-than-expected Q2 loss, sending shares higher.
• JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ: JAKK) reported swinging to a Q2 net loss and revenues were flat.

Analyst upgrades:

• Baird upgraded WinTrust (NASDAQ: WTFC) to Neutral from Underperform and raised its target to $20 from $13 citing the accretive purchase of AIG (NYSE: AIG) loans and reduced risk of a capital raise.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Coach (NYSE: COH) to Overweight from Neutral on expectations product sell-throughs and margin trends will improve in the coming quarters. The firm has a $32 target on the stock.
• RBC Capital upgraded Campbell Soup (NYSE: CPB) to Sector Perform from Underperform and raised its target to $33 from $29. The firm cites Campbell's recent innovation, easy volume comps, and "reasonable" consensus estimates for its upgrade.
• Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was upgraded to Conviction Buy from Buy at Goldman.

Today was a dud from the start as profit takers were in there unloading gains as the impatient buyers try to gradually build positions in stocks they feel they have missed. For an earnings season trading day, this was a low-impact day. There was some negative consumer confidence data, but the Case-Shiller data showed signs that home prices are stabilizing.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,096.42 -12.09 (-0.13%)
S&P 500 979.60 -2.58 (-0.26%)
Nasdaq 1,975.51 +7.62 (0.39%)

Top Upgrades and Downgrades

Movado (NYSE: MOV) is a watchmaker. It distributes timepieces based on various brands such as Lacoste and Coach (NYSE: COH). And its stock is on the rise today. During early afternoon trading, Movado is up by over 8% on very good volume. As can be expected, an earnings report is behind the excitement.

Now, to be certain, the stats weren't great. Movado is still reeling from the harsh economic times. Sales declined 33% in Q1, and there was a loss per share of $0.37. That compared very unfavorably to a profit of $0.05 per share in the year-ago period. Also, the gross margin slipped significantly.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) Q1 profit blew away estimates, sending shares soaring.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) topped analysts expectations and offered conservative guidance.
• Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) reported better-than-expected results but warned that if faced challenges.
• Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) topped Q3 profit estimates and announced the start of quarterly dividends.
• Continental Airlines Inc. (NYSE: CAL) widened is net loss in Q1 but still beat low Wall Street estimates.

Coach (NYSE: COH - option chain) shares are headed higher today after the company reported a third-quarter adjusted profit of 38 cents per share this morning, above analysts' estimates of 36 cents per share. However, the even bigger news is that the company announced it will begin paying a quarterly dividend of 7.5 cents per share on June 29. That is a pretty bold statement in this environment. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on COH.

COH opened this morning at $20.18. So far today the stock has hit a low of $20.76 and a high of $21.62. As of 11:20, COH is trading at $20.76, up 2.53 (13.9%). The chart for COH looks bullish and S&P gives COH a positive 5 STARS (out of 5) strong buy ranking.

In this era of the 'frugal consumer' -- characterized by stagnant median incomes, difficult labor market conditions, and an uncertain economic recovery timetable -- most investors agree the retail sector is best avoid.

But there are exceptions to the rule for investors who can tolerate moderate risk, and Coach (NYSE: COH) is one.

Movado Group (NYSE: MOV), maker of watches, reported numbers for the fourth quarter. Really bad numbers. Net sales dropped over 32%. For the bottom line, there was a net loss of $0.42 per share on an adjusted basis. In last year's Q4, Movado generated adjusted income of $0.40 per share. That is one hell of a drop. Furthermore, the market wasn't even close to anticipating this ugly performance. According to this source, analysts thought that the company would only bleed about $0.02 per share.

You know, I haven't worn a watch in a long time. Maybe a lot of people are thinking like me, that they don't really need watches since we have so much access to clocks via cell phones and other devices (I don't own a cell phone, but I'm content to simply seek out a clock if I'm out and about). Of course, I'm being a little facetious here. Movado is merely suffering through a bad economy. And it's perhaps in need of some better management. The company sells timepieces based on licensed brands such as Coach (NYSE: COH) and Tommy Hilfiger. Consumers are apparently satisfied with purchasing cheap, non-branded watches. Can't blame them.

Analyst upgrades:

• HSBC upgraded Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) to Overweight from Neutral as it believes the risk of immediate nationalization has been removed.
  
• JP Morgan upgraded DTS Inc (NASDAQ: DTSI) to Overweight from Neutral to reflect accretion from the Neural acquisition and its expectation the company can generate strong cash flow during the downturn. The firm raised its target to $18.
  
• Cowen upgraded Coach (NYSE: COH) to Outperform from Neutral citing the recent sell-off in shares.
  
• BJ's Wholesale (NYSE: BJ) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS.
  
• First Horizon (NYSE: FHN) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
  
• Spartech (NYSE: SEH) was raised to Hold from Underweight at KeyBanc.

Investors in luxury leather goods maker Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) saw their shares tumble earlier this week when the company announced that profit fell 14% in its second fiscal quarter.

Coach earned 67 cents per share for the quarter compared to earnings of 69 cents per share in the year-ago quarter, and sales fell 1.8% to $960.3 million. Gross margin narrowed to 72.1% from 75.4% last year.

Like many other companies, Coach did not provide guidance for the balance of the fiscal year, signifying its lack of visibility going forward. But the company did try to assure investors by pointing to its nearly debt-free balance sheet and large cash position. Shares fell by as much as 15% during trading on Wednesday, but rallied to halve that loss later in the day.

In order to "protect our brand identity," CEO Lew Frankfort said the company resisted discounting during the holiday season. It paid a steep price to do so, because other retailers' heavy discounts hurt traffic at Coach's stores and in department stores.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (NYSE: APD) met Q1 profit estimates and lowered its guidance.
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) stellar Q1 results easily topped analysts' expectations, sending shares higher.
• Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) unimpressive Q2 results due to holiday sales were in line with expectations.
• General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Q4 profits were dragged down finance, consumer divisions.
• Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) Q4 earnings tumbled on lower demand globally and domestically.
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings but lower revenue.
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) released its dismal Q2 results early and announced job cuts.
• Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE: POT) Q4 earnings more than doubled on higher prices.
• Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX) fell after posting losses and guidance for more weakness ahead.
• Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) warned that it would post its biggest loss ever in full-year 2008.
• State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) earnings tumbled on charges but still topped analysts' estimates.
• UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) Q4 earnings were in line with estimates and it reaffirmed its outlook.
• United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) modest Q4 earnings growth was in line with expectations.

For more highlights from this week, see eBay, Google, IBM, Southwest, UAL, AMR, Northern Trust and others

Okay, put your hand up if you like the idea of investing in retailers that base their shareholder value on fashion trends? Just as I thought. And while a lack of interest might be a contrarian indicator in some cases, I don't think it is in this case. Let's take Coach (NYSE: COH) as an example. The company reported Q2 earnings on Wednesday. As one might expect, they were weak and unattractive, the exact opposite of one of those Coach bags. Sales were down 2%, and earnings per diluted share were down 3% to $0.67, which this source says met expectations.

I'll give ample credit to Coach for meeting expectations. That's not easy to do given its business model, especially since Christmas was not kind to any of the malls across the country. There's not much Coach can do to thrive. The press release talks about keeping innovation strong, and about offering new collections, and about strong growth opportunities over in China. It's all meaningless. That previously cited source speaks of Coach's plans to cut prices and reduce expansion strategies. Coach is simply in defensive mode, it can do precious little to get traffic in its stores because consumers are reticent to spend. Actually, that last point will probably go down as one of the biggest understatements ever offered up in the history of financial commentary.

IBM (NYSE: IBM), the tech bellwether, reported quarterly results Tuesday after the close, surprising analyst with a 12% rise in profit. It also forecast 2009 earnings of at least $9.20 a share, compared to analyst expectations around $8.70 a share. Shares were up about 3.9% in premarket trading.

BHP Biliton (NYSE: BHP), the largest mining company in the world, said it would lay off 6% of its global workforce or 6,000 workers as a result of production cuts. Around 550 of them will be in the U.S. Shares declined nearly a percent in premarket trading.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), the Swedish telecom equipment maker, announced a 31% profit drop and a 23% surge in sales. It also said it would cut 5,000 jobs in the attempt to save $1.2 billion in costs in 2009. Shares gained nearly 13.5% in premarket trading.

Many companies are due to report results on Wednesday: AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), UAL Corp. (NASDAQ: UAUA), BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) and Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) and after the close, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY).

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) said it expects to earn $1.06 to $1.35 per share on sales from $9 billion to $10 billion in the first quarter, but analysts seem to expect more, estimating income of $1.39 per share on $9.74 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. Meanwhile, U.S. regulators are examining Apple's disclosures about Jobs' health problems to ensure investors weren't misled, according to Bloomberg sources. Shares gained about 1.3% in premarket trading.