Piper Jaffray Raises Price Target on Wolverine World Wide (WWW) After Traveling with Management

Piper Jaffray reiterated a Neutral rating on Wolverine World Wide (NYSE: WWW), and raised the price target to $17.00 (from $16.00), after traveling with management, and meeting with investors. During the meetings, there were several questions on how the company approached brand portfolio management in addition to its stance on harnessing growth. This is an area the company is addressing real-time by working to introduce closer to four new product introductions by brand per year versus a cadence of two prior.

Analyst Erinn Murphy commented, "We traveled with SVP, CFO & Treasurer Mike Stornant in London & Zurich last week to meet with investors in the region. While we remain on the sidelines with respect to the stock and note the story is in a show-me situation with a back-end weighted year, we are raising our PT acknowledging the valuation expansion in our footwear sub-group this year has moved from a mean of 12x in Jan to 14x currently. For WWW, we are taking up our multiple from 12x to 13x our FY16 EPS and our PT moves up from $16 to $17. The three largest learnings from our meetings were as follows: 1) inventory pressure likely a headwind until Q3/Q4; 2) strong internal emphasis on innovation hub, driving consumer insights group & supporting long-term growth drivers (DTC, apparel/accessories, int'l); and 3) focus on reducing lead times & shrinking development calendar."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Wolverine World Wide click here. For more ratings news on Wolverine World Wide click here.

Shares of Wolverine World Wide closed at $19.15 yesterday.

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