What happened
Shares of fashion e-commerce company Revolve Group (RVLV -7.10%) were handily beating the S&P 500 this week as of Friday morning. As of this writing, Revolve stock was up about 14% for the week compared to just a 1.5% gain for the S&P 500. And it seems Revolve's outperformance stems from some commentary from Wall Street.
So what
On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Lauren Schenk lowered her price target for Revolve stock from $28 per share to $26, according to MarketBeat. Typically, lowering a price target would hurt a stock. However, it was a small adjustment to the price target.
Moreover, Schenk maintained her hold rating on the stock, and her price target implied about 13% more upside from where it was trading at the time. Both of those factors might have instilled some confidence for investors.
The next day, Baird analyst Mark Altschwager also lowered his price target for Revolve stock from $35 to $30, according to The Fly. The adjustment was larger than Schenk's, but Altschwager maintained his buy rating on the stock. In short, the analyst believes this apparel company can meet expectations in the upcoming third-quarter report. And the market was apparently inspired by this commentary.
Now what
Revolve is expected to report third-quarter earnings on Nov. 2. At the beginning of August, management noted that sales in July were only up 10% year over year compared to 27% in the second quarter. In short, business was slowing. Therefore, it will be interesting to see if the trend continued throughout the quarter.
Even if third-quarter results show slowing growth for Revolve, it would seem more related to the economy, not the business model. The company seems adept at winning customers in its core demographic. And that should compel investors to look beyond a single quarter's results and think long term about this business.
