Guess Inc. (GES: sentiment, chart, options) shares are on the upswing this morning after the retailer pleasantly surprised the Street last night with its second-quarter earnings report. The company banked a profit of $53.8 million, or 57 cents per share, while revenue climbed 33% to $515.2 million. Ahead of the report, analysts were predicting a profit of 49 cents per share on $460.8 million in revenue.

In the wake of its robust second quarter, Guess boosted its full-year earnings estimate to a range between $2.47 and $2.53 per share, up from its previous forecast of $2.40 to $2.48 per share. The retailer is now expecting to collect annual revenue of $2.06 billion to $2.11 billion, compared to its prior outlook of $2.03 billion to $2.08 billion.

The upbeat report from Guess prompted what has to be one of the year's fanciest comments from an analyst -- namely, Eric Beder of Brean Murry, Carret & Co. Beder, who has a "buy" rating on GES, enthused that "Denim is going to be a very big piece of this second-half fashion story."

Right out of the gate, GES is up more than 4% and cracked the $40 level in early trading -- just pennies below its current annual high of $40.32. Short-covering support could help the stock challenge this peak; short interest represents a healthy 12.4% of float, or 5.1 times the security's average daily volume.