Oppenheimer Analyzed Retail Stocks In Preparation For Black Friday (AEO, ANF, ARO, ZUMZ, GPS)

As Black Friday Approaches, Oppenheimer analysts looked into the activity of malls to look into the trends in New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Florida.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) showed improving traffic while the struggling company, Abercrombie and Fitch (NYSE: ANF) received negative commentary from the people surveyed in the malls. Part of the reason of American Eagles turnaround is from $24.95 pricing of their Flanels which Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) was not able to take advantage. American Eagle Outfitters went up 1.01% to $16.02 while Abercrombie and Fitch also went up 2.21% to $41.59 a share.

The Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) will be running their “Give and Get” event where they will be offering 30% discounts to all the three concepts of Banana Republic, The Gap and Old Navy. However, based on their initial assessment only the Old Navy concept has been able to capitalize.

Oppenheimer also looked into Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) and Pacific Sunwear of California (PSUN). Zumiez is investing heavily in advertisements and the increased exposure should pay off this holiday season. Oppenheimer sees Pacific Sunwear operations and they think the company is not taking full advantage of the winter season.

Oppenheimer Analysts think American Eagle Outfitters will be outperforming the benchmark of the S&P500 and set a target price of $15.86. Analysts expect Aeropostale to perform in line with the same bench mark with a price target of $34.08 a share. Abercrombie and Fitch is expected to be in line with the S&P500 with a price target of $40.68 per share. Pacific Sunwear is expected to perform along S&P500 with a target price of $4.79 per share. Zumiez will be in line with the S&P500 and has a price target of $11.77 per share.