In separate notes Thursday, Citi analysts told investors that they see Burlington Stores (NYSE:BURL) and Nordstrom (NYSE:JWN) topping second quarter earnings consensus expectations.
In the BURL note, the analysts, who have a Buy rating and $234 price target on the stock, stated they see the company reiterating guidance.
"We expect 2Q sales and EPS slightly above consensus and at the high end of mgmt guidance. We are at $0.45 vs consensus of $0.43 and guidance of $0.35-0.45," they wrote.
"Our Placer foot traffic data imply comps at least at the high end of the range. We expect mgmt to reiterate its annual guidance of $5.50-6.00, which is in line w/mkt expectations."
They concluded that the risk/reward for BURL "skews positive into the call," although they believe greater confidence in the long-term margin potential will require a couple of quarters of solid results.
On JWN, the analysts up the firm's price target on the stock to $20 from $17 per share, maintaining a Neutral rating.
"We expect 2Q EPS above consensus driven by better sales and GM," they said. "We model EPS of $0.51 vs consensus of $0.44 based on sales -10% vs consensus -11% and guidance of -LDD in 1H."
"Based on foot traffic trends, we believe trends at Rack have improved in 2Q, and while we do not believe this means that Rack is 'fixed,' we do expect it to drive upside in the qtr. This will be new CFO Cathy Smith's first earnings call, and we expect her to reiterate annual guidance of $1.80-2.20 (vs consensus of $1.98) rather than raise the bar at this point."
The analysts concluded that JWN's stock remains the least crowded in the firm's coverage group and "continues to have relatively high short interest (17%), skewing the risk/reward more positive into the 2Q call."