American Eagle soars as Sweeney campaign draws in shoppers

Shares of American Eagle Outfitters jumped almost 15% in early buying and selling on Wednesday after its viral Sydney Sweeney denims campaign continued to drive in-store site visitors throughout the important thing vacation season, prompting the retailer to boost its annual gross sales forecast.

Shares of the corporate are up virtually 60% since September. The “Great Jeans” advert, launched in July and that includes “Euphoria” actor, even garnered reward from U.S. President Donald Trump.

For American Eagle, profitable campaigns with Sweeney, a collaboration with NFL participant Travis Kelce’s clothes model Tru Kolors have pushed up engagement and boosted visibility, in response to analysts at Jefferies.

The upbeat forecast follows the essential five-day Thanksgiving purchasing occasion, which noticed a surge in on-line spending from extra prosperous shoppers, regardless of blended outcomes in the broader retail business.
The firm’s latest pivot to cater to those prosperous patrons has helped it navigate a broader retail slowdown pushed by inflation and commerce tensions.

American Eagle now expects vacation quarter comparable gross sales to develop between 8% and 9%, in contrast with analysts’ estimates of a 2.2% rise, in response to information compiled by LSEG.

“As a company, we’re leaning into advertising. We need to compete when we see what our competition is doing,” mentioned American Eagle govt Jennifer Foyle.

“American Eagle will have to continue to invest in marketing spend to continue to drive share gains on top of these successes,” Barclays analysts mentioned in a observe.

The inventory has risen about 25% to this point this 12 months, and trades at a 14.74 forward-price-to-earnings a number of, above friends Abercrombie & Fitch’s 9.86 and Urban Outfitters’ 13.63.