NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Analysts at Barclays upgraded their rating on Foot Locker Inc. to "overweight" from "equal-weight" on Friday morning. The firm said it raised its rating on the athletic shoes and apparel retailer based on a valuation call and raised its price target on the stock to $70 from $60. "Foot Locker offers an attractive entry point valuation level for a dominant and structural long-term growth story, as well as an upcoming catalyst with a 2015 Investor Day (that we expect will be held in March). We note that Foot Locker, on average, reached or exceeded most of its five-year goals from prior investor days (2010, 2012), within two years of offering them," Barclays said. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015 STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. Shares of Foot Locker are up by 0.33% to $54.53 in pre-market trading today. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates FOOT LOCKER INC as a Buy with a ratings score of A+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate FOOT LOCKER INC (FL) a BUY. This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures, which should help this stock outperform the majority of stocks that we rate. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and reasonable valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows weak operating cash flow." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: Investors have apparently begun to recognize positive factors similar to those we have mentioned in this report, including earnings growth. This has helped drive up the company's shares by a sharp 44.08% over the past year, a rise that has exceeded that of the S&P 500 Index. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, FL should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year. FOOT LOCKER INC has improved earnings per share by 17.1% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, FOOT LOCKER INC increased its bottom line by earning $2.85 versus $2.59 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($3.48 versus $2.85). Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 9.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 6.7%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share. FL's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.05 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. You can view the full analysis from the report here: FL Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.
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