Monday, December 2, 2013

Hot Trends: Analyst downgrades Urban Outfitters, citing 'merchandising miscues'







Urban Outfitters' brand is coming under scrutiny from an analyst that follows the retailer.

In a report released Monday, Ike Boruchow of Sterne Agee said Urban Outfitters is having "brand problems," illustrated in part by its aggressive discounting in advance of Black Friday, even extending promotional periods.

Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN), which is based in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, owns 225 Urban Outfitters stores, 185 Anthropologie locations and 86 Free People sites.

"While the Anthropologie and Free People concepts continue to outperform, we are losing confidence in the Urban brand's ability to quickly adjust its merchandising miscues, which creates potential risk to 2014 numbers," Boruchow said in his report.

On Monday, Boruchow downgraded Urban to a "neutral" rating (from "buy"), saying shares could top out at $42.

In mid-day trading, shares were down 3 percent, to $37.85. Hospitality, Marketing, Retail

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