On a day when the market is stuttering, specialty retailer Chico’s FAS, Inc. (CHS) finds itself in the green by about 10.5%. That’s more than enough to make it a Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer for Wednesday.

The advance can be attributed to a strong fiscal third-quarter report announced earlier today. EPS improved on a year-over-year basis and topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate, while sales also moved higher.

Volume today is around 11.5 million shares, which is almost triple the daily average of 4.1 million.

Chico’s FAS is a women’s specialty retailer of private branded, sophisticated, casual-to-dressy clothing, intimates, complementary accessories, and other non-clothing gift items.

It is part of the retail-apparel/shoe industry. On today’s Zacks #1 Rank List, there are 4 other names from this space: American Apparel, Inc. (APP), which was recently a Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer on Nov 13, J. Crew Group, Inc. (JCG), Limited Brands, Inc. (LTD) and Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN). (There are 226 stocks in total on the Zacks #1 Rank List today.)

Strong FQ3 for Chico’s FAS

Earlier today, Chico’s FAS announced fiscal third-quarter earnings per share of 13 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 7 cents by nearly 86%. CHS has now either met or surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 9 consecutive quarters; meeting 3 times and beating 6 times. Looking at the last 4 quarters, it has amassed and average surprise of about 40%.

The result also marked a solid year-over-year advance from 1-cent per share.

Sales rose 13.3% to $446.9 million from $394.2 million. Meanwhile, same-store sales increased 12.8%. These are encouraging developments given the still sluggish economy and the fact that many companies are beating EPS estimates due to cost cutting rather than revenue growth.

Earnings Estimates

Of course, earnings estimates are not yet reflecting Chico’s FAS’ quarterly report from earlier today. There are now 18 covering analysts for this year and 19 covering analysts for next year pouring over the data; we’ll watch how this impacts the estimates going forward.

At the moment though, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for this fiscal year, ending January 2010, is at 28 cents per share. That outlook has advanced 21.7% in 3 months and 3.7% in 30 days.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for next fiscal year, ending January 2011, is at 54 cents, or 93% better than the guidance for this fiscal year. Expectations for this period have advanced 20% in 3 months and 1.9% in 30 days.

Zacks Investment Research

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