By Senad Karaahmetovic
Shares of Foot Locker (NYSE:FL) are trading about 4% higher in pre-market Tuesday after the company held its 2023 Investor Day and reported better-than-expected Q4 results yesterday.
Evercore ISI analysts raised the price target to $60 per share and upgraded the FL stock to Outperform.
They cited three key reasons behind the upgrade: 1) A positive new strategy, 2) Propriety analysis shows FL remains highly relevant for street/lifestyle drops, and 3) Inventory/promotionality risk associated with Foot Locker has been misunderstood in the nearer term.
"We think Foot Locker will start to flip the script away from a disintermediation narrative to a grow-with-secularly-healthy-sneaker-demand narrative. And with shares trading at just 9x forward EPS (and 5x target 2026 EPS), we see the potential for the multiple to expand to low-to-mid-teens (FL traded mid-to-high-teens prior to disintermediation concerns) as the model transforms in the coming quarters," the analysts wrote in a note.
Citi analysts upgraded the stock to Buy from Neutral with the price target raised to $50 per share. Similarly, they are also impressed by the new CEO Mary Dillon, who previously held the same role at Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA).
"New CEO Mary Dillon brings a successful track record of courting beauty brands in her previous role at ULTA, making her the right leader for this moment. We believe NKE is fully on board with FL’s strategy to grow in kids and basketball (we are likely to hear more from NKE on their 3Q23 call tonight), supported by their plans to grow NKE at FL again in 2H23," the analysts said.