Levi Strauss will report earnings on Wednesday, Jan. 27 after the close
Levi Strauss & Co. (NYSE:LEVI) kicked off the year with a two-year high of $22.64 back on Jan. 12. Ahead of the company's earnings report later this week, LEVI picked up a price-target hike to $24 from $20 at Telsey Advisory.
The lofty note is indicative of the larger analyst community, where all six rate LEVI a "buy" or better. A short squeeze could definitely keep the wind at the stock's back, considering 22% of LEVI's total available float is sold short. And while the shares have taken a breather from the record high levels from earlier, their 50-day moving average has so far contained the pullback.
Levi Strauss will step into the earnings confessional after the close on Wednesday, Jan. 28. LEVI has beat expectations on all four of its most recent earnings reports. But it only resulted in one positive post-earnings move, a 9.3% pop back in April. In the last eight quarters, LEVI has averaged a post-earnings move of 6.7%, regardless of direction. For Wednesday's report, the options market is pricing in a bigger-than-usual move of 8.2%.
Although LEVI has lost over $700 million in revenue in the past year, the company still managed to generate $5 billion in sales. Levi Strauss also ended the year with a profit despite seeing a net income decrease of nearly $400 million. Furthermore, the company has $1.43 billion in cash on its balance sheet and has managed to maintain its debt at a manageable $2.64 billion. Finally, LEVI has very promising forward price-earnings ratio 19.42. Levi Strauss currently sits at a market cap just above $8 billion.