<\/p>\n
\n\tNEUTRALIZED: Shares of VF Corp. got a welcome boost on Monday, rising 5.3 percent to $15.79 after J.P. Morgan analyst Matthew Boss upgraded the stock to neutral from underweight.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe upgrade wasn\u2019t exactly a ringing endorsement, but an acknowledgment that the company is more sheltered from further downside with a \u201crisk\/reward profile\u201d that Boss described as \u201cmore balanced.\u201d Before the latest uptick, shares of VF were down nearly 19 percent over the past six months as the S&P 500 climbed 13.4 percent.<\/p>\n
\n\tBoss argued that much has changed at the company.<\/p>\n
\n\tVF\u2019s top and bottom lines are on track to meet or exceed Wall Street estimates this fiscal year, he said. Helping to fuel that, the \u201cOutdoor Anchored Portfolio\u201d of The North Face, Timberland and Altra are targeting midsingle-digit growth in a sector projected to grow by about 6 percent for the next five years.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe declines at Vans \u2014 which makes up 20 percent of VF\u2019s business \u2014 are now \u201cringfenced with \u2018high visibility\u2019\u201d for the second half, according to Boss. The fiscal 2029 margin target of 10 percent is also \u201con track\u201d while net debt leverage should fall to 2.5-times in 2028 from 4.1-times in 2025.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe analyst also pointed to \u201cPortfolio Accelerators,\u201d which are not embedded in his current forecasts, but could provide significant runway.<\/p>\n
\n\tThey include the potential benefits of elevating The North Face\u2019s image, opening more Timberland stores and shining a spotlight on Altra.<\/p>\n
\n\tVans could also perk up with more sales to wholesalers \u2014 or even see some dealmaking.<\/p>\n
\n\tBoss pointed out that VF has a history of \u201cevaluating M&A optionality in the portfolio\u201d and could divest Vans as its revenues stabilize at about $2 billion after five years of declines.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe analyst estimated that while a sale would cut the company\u2019s operating income by about $40 million, it would also translate into a \u201c$600 million capital allocation EPS break-even scenario\u201d as money from the deal would flow into the rest of the business.<\/p>\n
\n\tVF has not expressed any interest in selling Vans.<\/p>\n
#Shares #Rise #J.P #Morgan #Upgrade #Neutral<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEUTRALIZED: Shares of VF Corp. got a welcome boost on Monday, rising 5.3 percent to $15.79 after J.P. Morgan analyst Matthew Boss upgraded the stock to neutral from underweight. The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1617\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}