Retail Winners: Abercrombie, J.C. Penney
NEW YORK (
) - Retailers are gaining Tuesday afternoon on some better-than-expected earnings reports.
Most notably, teen retailer
Abercrombie & Fitch
(ANF) - Get Report
is rising 4.4% to $35.34, after the company reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street's forecast.
Excluding charges related to the closure of its Ruehl chain, Abercrombie & Fitch earned 91 cents, higher than the 87 cents a share analysts predicted.
Abercrombie is also targeting extensive international growth
, which is expected to offset weak sales at home.
As a result, Wall Street Strategies analyst Brain Sozzi upgraded Abercrombie & Fitch to hold from sell and raised his price target on the stock to $37 from $26.
Despite begin downgraded by Morgan Stanley,
J.C. Penney
(JCP) - Get Report
is advancing 2.4% to $25.51 in afternoon trading.
Morgan Stanley cut J.C. Penney to equal weight from overweight, citing margin concerns. The broken said margins at the department store have most likely peaked.
Department store rivals are following J.C. Penney's lead, with
Macy's
(M) - Get Report
up 2.1% to $17.48,
Sears
(SHLD)
increasing 1.5% to $91.86 and
Kohl's
(KSS) - Get Report
climbing 2.3% to $50.59.
Other significant gainers include
Bebe
(BEBE)
, which is spiking 8.9% to $8.44,
eBay
(EBAY) - Get Report
, which is jumping 2.6% to $22.34, and
Office Depot
(ODP) - Get Report
, which is surging 9.8% to $6.39.
But there were several losers, including
Gap
(GPS) - Get Report
, which is losing 2.5% to $19.63, after also being downgraded by Morgan Stanley.
Blockbuster
(BBI) - Get Report
is also falling, by 2.9% to 37 cents in afternoon trading.
-- Reported by Jeanine Poggi in New York.
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>>Abercrombie & Fitch Not a Buy Yet
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