2 Retail Winners For The Second Half Of 2021

 | Aug 17, 2021 06:31AM ET

While the mainstream media is focused on the bigger more important issues at hand the stock market is quietly going about its business. Part of that business is upgrading and downgrading stocks and Monday's news included two upgrades that we find interesting. Both are discretionary names in high demand and both are positioned to leverage revenue gains later in the year. Tight inventories and a heavily reduced discounting environment will not only drive revenue growth but profitability as well.h2 1. Children's Place Is The Place To Get School Clothes/h2

Children’s Place (NASDAQ:PLCE) just got an upgrade to buy from neutral at B Riley Securities. Analyst Susan Anderson and her team think school uniforms will be in high demand this year and we agree. While COVID-19 will most likely impact school function this year, we don't think they're going to close the schools down like they did last year. A recent Google search trend analysis showed searches for school uniforms were up more than 400% from earlier in the year reinforcing the idea uniforms are in hot demand.

"Additionally, our store and online checks show higher prices on upgraded features in key items such as stretch denim as well as new fashion items such as girl's sweaters, as well as lower promos as inventory remains lean."

Ms. Anderson also increased the price target to $130 from $92 Implying about 28% upside. This compares to a consensus closer to $80 but the trend in sentiment is definitely higher. The consensus price target has more than doubled in the last 90 days and the high price target is at $150. In our view, Children's Place is aided by its e-commerce presence and should easily be able to outpace the analyst consensus both this reporting season and next. We are expecting the analysts to begin increasing their earnings and revenue estimates as well as up their price targets very soon. Children's Place reports earnings later this week.