Fair Value

9 Months Ended

Oct. 30, 2011

Fair Value [Abstract]

Fair Value

Note 7: Fair Value

When determining the fair value measurements for assets and liabilities required or permitted to be recorded at fair value, the Company considers the principal or most advantageous market in which it would transact and considers assumptions that market participants would use when pricing the asset or liability, such as inherent risk, transfer restrictions, and risk of nonperformance. The Company uses a fair value hierarchy that maximizes the use of observable inputs and minimizes the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. Three levels of inputs are used to measure fair value:

Level 1 - Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

Level 2 - Observable inputs other than Level 1 prices such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices in markets with insufficient volume or infrequent transactions (less active markets); or model-derived valuations in which all significant inputs are observable or can be derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities.

Level 3 - Unobservable inputs to the valuation methodology that is significant to the measurement of fair value of assets or liabilities.

Available-for-sale securities included in Level 1 are valued using closing price for identical instruments that are traded on active exchanges. Available-for-sale securities included in Level 2 are valued utilizing inputs obtained from an independent service (the "Service"), which uses quoted market prices for identical or comparable instruments rather than direct observations of quoted prices in active markets. The Service gathers observable inputs for all of our fixed income securities from a variety of industry data providers, for example, large custodial institutions and other third-party sources. Once the observable inputs are gathered by the Service, all data points are considered and an average price is determined. The Service's providers utilize a variety of inputs to determine their quoted prices. Substantially all of our available-for-sale investments are valued utilizing inputs obtained from the Service and accordingly are categorized as Level 2. The Company reviews and evaluates the values provided by the Service and agrees with the valuation methods and assumptions used in determining the fair value of investments. The Company believes this method provides a reasonable estimate for fair value.

To the extent that valuation is based on models or inputs that are less observable or unobservable in the market, the determination of fair value requires more judgment. In certain cases, the inputs used to measure fair value may fall into different levels of the fair value hierarchy. In such cases, for disclosure purposes, the level in the fair value hierarchy within which the fair value measurement is disclosed is determined based on the lowest level input that is significant to the fair value measurement.

All items recorded or measured at fair value on a recurring basis in the accompanying unaudited consolidated condensed financial statements were based on the use of Level 2 inputs and consisted of the following:

	Fair Value as of October 30, 2011						Fair Value as of January 30, 2011
(in thousands)	Total		Quoted Prices in Active Markets for Identical Instruments (Level 1)		Observable Inputs Other than Level 1 Prices (Level 2)		Total		Quoted Prices in Active Markets for Identical Instruments (Level 1)		Observable Inputs Other than Level 1 Prices (Level 2)
Agency securities	$	40,754		—	$	40,754	$	54,747		—	$	54,747
Corporate issues		13,566		—		13,566		16,576		—		16,576
Bank time deposits		80,000		—		80,000		68,000		—		68,000
	$	134,320	$	—	$	134,320	$	139,323	$	—	$	139,323

The Company's fixed income available-for-sale security portfolio generally consists of high quality, investment grade securities from diverse issuers with a minimum credit rating of A/A2. The Company previously classified these investments as Level 1 because it did not make adjustments to the prices obtained from the Service. Since the Company values these securities based on pricing from the Service, whose sources may use quoted prices in active markets for identical assets (Level 1 inputs) or inputs other than quoted prices that are observable either directly or indirectly (Level 2 inputs) in determining fair value, the Company began classifying all of its fixed income available-for-sale securities as Level 2 in the second quarter of fiscal year 2012. See Note 6 for more information regarding the Company's available-for-sale investments.