Two analysts have raised the price target for Coach Inc. shares ahead of the company’s report of third-quarter results on Tuesday.
Cowen’s Oliver Chen raised the price target to $46 from $42, even though shares of Coach are already up 22 percent year-to-date. The analyst said the “brand transformation appears on track to achieve positive fourth-quarter comps.” Chen said that in his team’s checks in 23 states with 51 participants with Shaler Research indicate that Coach’s “brand momentum is accelerating.”
Chen said he believes that growth in the U.S. handbag category remains soft at flat to slightly up, but that’s also due to a challenged North American department store environment. Responses from those participating in the Shaler Research survey “revealed a broader assortment with new designs resonating well with customers and generating traffic, while other responses noted improved in-store presentation and sales techniques.”
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Wolfe Research’s Adrienne Yih Tennant has a price target of $47. She said Friday that in a recent channel check, one of the Millennial shoppers said the Swagger bag is “ridiculously cute, gotta have it.” The Swagger bag — like the Hobo, Outlaw and Dinky — are part of the spring arrivals that have traditional bag styles in updated fabrics, colors and prints. It was the rainbow color blocks of Swagger that got the “cute” nod from the Millennial customer.
Tennant also noted that the handbag firm’s introduction of its “1941 Collection,” an upscale, fashion-forward ready-to-wear collection, has been “successfully elevating Coach’s brand image.”
While Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory Group didn’t raise her price target for Coach shares — currently at $44 — she said she expects the company to post earnings per share of 43 cents, 2 cents ahead of the consensus estimate of 41 cents and 7 cents ahead of the 36 cents reported in the year-ago quarter. She is also expecting a North American same-store sales decline of 1 percent, compared with consensus of -1.4 percent, representing the fourth consecutive quarter of sequential improvement. “While we continue to look for a negative comp in the third quarter, we do believe that the continued sequential improvement could lead to positive comps in the fourth quarter,” she said.
Shares of Coach on Friday rose 0.7 percent to close at $40.28 in Big Board trading.