Wedbush Highlights Abercrombie As Gaining Momentum Over Holiday Weekend

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF shares have lost 5 percent year-to-date.
• Wedbush’s Morry Brown said that the company’s performance during the Holiday weekend was most surprising, with strong traffic and sell through.

Promotions in teen retail remained broadly flat to down, as compared to 2014, both before and after Christmas, analyst Morry Brown mentioned. He added that denim appeared to be the major sales driver during the Holiday weekend.

“During our store checks we were the most surprised by Abercrombie & Fitch as they had some of the strongest traffic and sell through in the category by the end of the holiday weekend,” Brown wrote.

Similar to 2014, Abercrombie & Fitch offered a 40-60 percent discount on everything, with denim sell through at $39. Hollister’s sell-through was not as significant as that witnessed by Abercrombie, although denim sold through at $24, at a lower discount than the $20 recorded in last year’s post-Christmas denim promotion.

While checks indicated that American Eagle Outfitters AEO “was a standout” on Christmas Eve, there was lack of sell down in clearance over the weekend, like at other retailers, Brown added.