About 20 years ago, I remember watching the vice presidential debate on TV. It was Lloyd Bentsen, the Democratic senator from Texas, versus Dan Quayle, a Republican senator from Indiana. In that debate, Quayle had likened himself to Jack Kennedy, and Bentsen shot back these famous words: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

I thought about that quote just the other day.

I was reviewing the investment merits of retail jeweler, Zale (NYSE:ZLC). And frankly, when I look at the company, I can't help thinking that it is no Tiffany & Co. (NYSE:TIF). Zale simply doesn't deserve the same respect that the well-known high end jeweler has been receiving.

Now don't misunderstand me. I realize that Zale's scored a lot of press and saw its stock shoot up almost two bucks (or roughly 8.7%) on better-than-expected fiscal Q4 results. But were the results really that good?

Zale's saw its revenue drop off from $491 million a year ago to $488 million in Q4. On the bottom line, the company earned 3 cents per share, which was north of the 13-cents-per-share loss that Wall Street analysts had been expecting. But frankly I don't think that's overly impressive when you consider that its same store sales declined 0.5% during the period.

 

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