Hot Topic, the teen clothing retailer based in City of Industry, said Wednesday that same-store sales for September declined 4 percent. However, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters predicted a decline of 6.3 percent, making the company’s negative performance a relative success.

By late morning Thursday, shares of Hot Topic traded at $8.28, an increase of 58 cents or nearly 8 percent from Wednesday’s close.

Analysts noted that the better-than-expected results didn’t come from Hot Topic stores, but rather from Torrid, the company’s smaller chain of extra-size clothing stores.

Reuters quoted Elizabeth Pierce at Roth Capital Partners saying “it’s tough because you don’t want to take the beat away from them but the beat was Torrid, not the main business.”

Year to date, total revenues for the company are down just 0.1 percent and same store sale are down 2.1 percent.