Piper Jaffray Believes Abercrombie Will Outperform (ANF)

Piper Jaffray believes that Abercrombie & Fitch ANF will outperform in the retailers in the back to school sales, when September same-store-sales are released. In the research report, Piper Jaffray writes, "The BTS season leaves the teen sector without a significant shopping event to drive traffic and sales; as such, our index points to a slight increase in comps versus last year's (1.2%) comp decline. Within our index, we estimate ANF and AEO will outperform the group due to merchandise mix and competitive pricing. The teen retailers started pulling back on promotions in Sept, but by week #3 discounting was back to competitive levels; sweaters and outerwear have replaced denim as key promotional category. Looking forward, we will be focused on when the weather will break nationally, as last year the first two weeks of October were 5.3 degrees below normal and improved the markdown cadence on fall product for FQ3 results." Shares of Abercrombie lost $1.57 or 4% on Friday to close at $37.75.