Oliver Chen

For retailers, it's no longer as easy as giving the rubber stamp when a store's lease comes up for renewal. Instead, as they look to prune their fleets to boost their overall productivity, companies are analyzing their physical footprints more than ever. So in an age when they can shutter underperforming stores in favor of less costly web operations, which retailers are getting the most out of their brick-and-mortar shops? Cowen & Co. analyst Oliver Chen broke down which retailers are paying the most rent per square foot, as well as which generate the most sales per square foot.

The tide is starting to turn for brick-and-mortar retailers. Long the digital laggard to online-only shops, traditional stores are beginning to capitalize on their robust physical footprints — namely, by using them as souped-up distribution networks — as they continue to make their web and mobile operations easier for shoppers to use. "Our analysis indicates traditional retailers' supply chain costs are roughly three times lower than [online] pure-plays when leveraging store fulfillment capabilities," Cowen & Co. Analyst Oliver Chen wrote in a note to investors Thursday.

Could J.C. Penney be on the verge of a turnaround? It has seen no shortage of bad news in the years since the financial crisis - including a weak 2013 holiday season, a boot from the S&P 500 and a below — $10 stock price that was once closer to $80 a share — but according to Citi analyst Oliver Chen, brighter days are on their way. Chen upgraded the beleaguered retailer's rating from