Despite a mixed back-to-school shopping season this year, Morgan Stanley thinks a couple of popular apparel retailers could beat the clothing industry slowdown and stand out into year-end. Overall back-to-school spending should come out in-line with pre-Covid trends, but fare weaker year over year given recent demand weakness, analyst Alex Straton said.
"We fear significant positive EPS revisions could be behind ANF, & caution out-year forecasts make for a high bar," Straton said. "These expectations, still-expensive relative valuation, & ongoing margin reversion/cyclicality risk have kept us Equal-weight rated." Other analysts, including Citi analyst Paul Lejeuz, remain bullish on Abercrombie ahead of earnings.