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Today we are watching…
1. L Brands (#lbrand)
The holiday season between Black Friday and Boxing Day is known for providing retail companies with 30-40% of their annual revenues. Tell that to investors in L Brands, who’ve just escaped the festive shopping season from hell! L Brands owns Bath & Body Works, Henri Bandel, and La Senza. However, it was the lingerie line of Victoria’s Secret that dragged it down. Now, Barclays analysts believe “change is afoot.” They’re upgrading L Brand’s shares from underweight to overweight and setting a price target of $30. Analysts sometimes take a stab in the dark for the sake of driving trading volumes, but this is a bold prediction, and investors are buying it.Â
2. Goldman Sachs (#goldmans)
Goldman Sachs won’t help companies go public onto stock exchanges unless they have at least one female, black, disabled, refugee, LGBTQ, or otherwise “diverse” board member. That’s impressive, but it’s also good for business. The company has run a policy in the past, whereby it only helps list companies with at least one female board member. Those initial public offerings (IPOs) have performed “significantly better” than the average, according to David Solomon at Davos yesterday.