ascena? what the heck is ascena? a new skin cream? like those procrit ads? a greek bank? and how could a company we've never heard of being doing so well? but even if you were familiar with ascena, and regular viewers of the show should know this one because we've spoken to the c.e.o. twice in the last 12 months. the results are really staggering. as is the fact that this stock is up 39% since the beginning of the year. so what the heck is going on here? first of all, you do know ascena, even if you've never seen or heard of it before. this is the company that started off as dress barn. boring old line brand if there ever was one. they changed the name about a year ago because the dress barn chain had become just one part of a much larger business with two other highly successful brands merged under one roof. maurice's and justice. still, when you think of ascena as the artist formerly known as dress barn, it's staggering. a 16 cent beat? and it wasn't just the bottom line. ascena posted 14.6% increase in revenues. substantially higher than what wall street was looking fo

ascena retail group. it's practically become a lifestyle brand for tweens. >> ooh. ah. these pants are particularly good, let's say, like if you had like a lot of barbecue over the weekend. otherwise, i don't know if i really feel like i'm styling. >> hmm. >>> i've been real negligent on the homework front. so let's take care of some housekeeping. on monday eric from california asked me about verifone systems. symbol p.a.y. right when the company was reporting its quarterly earnings. boom, that's when the question came up. i was concerned about how the stock was initially moving lower in after hours courtesy of the company's conservative earnings guidance. but since the conference call was still ongoing when i took eric's call, i wasn't going to opine on it without listening. so i had to take the time to do more homework. remember, you always have to read the conference call before making a decision. i never want you to buy or sell a stock until you've read the most recent conference call. it's the single most important part of the research. don't merely react to after-