Why L Brands, Conn's, and lululemon athletica Jumped Today

The major benchmarks added to their gains for the week on a positive but quiet day on Wall Street. Jobs growth slowed during August, with employers adding 156,000 jobs for the month, lower than the 180,000-190,000 predicted by economists, but investors seemed to shrug it off. Company-specific news sent some stocks higher, and L Brands, Inc. (NYSE: LB), Conn's, Inc. (NASDAQ: CONN), and lululemon athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) were among the best performers on the day. Below, we'll look more closely at these stocks to tell you why they did so well.

Shares of L Brands gained 3.4% after the company released better-than-expected sales numbers for the month of August. The company behind Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works reported net sales of $842.1 million for the four-week period that ended Aug. 26, a decrease of 1% from the year-ago period. Comparable store sales fell by 4%, though they would have been down just 2% adjusting for the company's exit from the swim and apparel business at Victoria's Secret. 

While this would seem like nothing to celebrate, the falling comps were less severe than L Brands has experienced in recent history. Net sales have fallen 5% year to date, while comparable sales have declined 8%, so this is actually an improvement. The company reported disappointing earnings in August, so investors seem to be breathing a sigh of relief that things weren't worse.

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Source: Fool.com