Top brands set these two apart

Article Excerpt

Limited Brands and Jones Group own some of the clothing industry’s best-known brands. That puts them in a good position to profit as consumer confidence improves. We like both, but we prefer Limited Brands. LIMITED BRANDS INC. $49 (New York symbol LTD; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 289.4 million; Market cap: $14.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 2.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.limitedbrands.com) owns the Victoria’s Secret lingerie chain and the Bath & Body Works personal-care products stores. It also owns the La Senza lingerie chain in Canada. The company continues to expand its well-known brands into related niche markets. For example, in 2004, Limited launched the Victoria’s Secret Pink clothing line for younger women. This brand’s success has prompted the company to open two stand-alone Pink stores in the U.S. and eight in Canada. Limited also plans to open more stores outside North America. This move gives the company lots of growth potential: right now, Limited gets just 9% of…