NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Five Below (FIVE) - Get Reportare up 1.12% to $28.90 in midday trading Wednesday after MKM Partners upgraded the stock's rating to "buy" with a $35 price target.

Five Below is a retailer offering a range of merchandise for teens and pre-teens.

"Given our favorable view of management and the longer-term potential of the business, we've been looking for an opportunity to get constructive," analysts said.  

The firm noted that it doesn't think trends deteriorated in January since it was a good month for most retailers, and  that there was solid traffic in the firm's regular store checks.  However, MKM added that February may have been tough with the snow/cold in the east and Five Below's limited geographic footprint. 

Although Five Below opened 62 new stores in 2014 and grew footage by 20%, the company is only in 21 states and has yet to enter some of the most populated states including Florida and California, analysts said. 

"The average new store generated about $2 million in sales and did close to $500K in EBITDA in 2014, ' according to MKM's estimation.

MKM believes that the company can significantly raise its online profile and drive incremental traffic into the stores, particularly during holiday season.  The firm also said that it expects the company's new CEO, Joel Anderson, to provide a detailed multi-channel strategy when Five Below posts its 2014 fourth quarter results on March 25. 

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates FIVE BELOW INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate FIVE BELOW INC (FIVE) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself, premium valuation and poor profit margins."

You can view the full analysis from the report here: FIVE Ratings Report

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