UBS Maintains Buy On Foot Locker Despite Expectation For 'Noisy' Q1

Foot Locker, Inc. FL is due to report its Q1 earnings on Friday. While UBS expects a "noisy" update from the sports retailer, they maintain a Buy rating and $74 price target heading the results.

UBS believes sluggish industry trends and one-time cost will likely limit EPS upside for the quarter. However, Foot Locker is well-positioned to benefit from "broad-based stronger innovation in 2016."

"While we believe the potential is low for '16 Street EPS ests to be revised down despite tough 1Q trends, we see less oppy for positive revision in the NT," analyst Michael Binetti wrote. "That said, FL's stock is down -15% over the past 3-mos (XRT -4%)—suggesting the stock already embraces 1Q EPS risk & slow May trends. In a downside scenario, we think FL's stock has support at $52/sh (-8% downside, though div yield would be 2.1%)—based on a recent trough 11x P/E when FL reported its only SSS miss in recent yrs (+1.8% in 2Q13)."

Shares closed Thursday at $58.54, up 2.5 percent on the day.