American Eagle
Despite a surge in stock price from its Sydney Sweeney-driven ad campaign, American Eagle has been downgraded by Bank of America from “neutral” to “underperform.” Shares of the retailer had previous jumped more than 18% in August after it launched its “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans” campaign.
According to reports, the gains that American Eagle has seen in the wake of its campaign alongside Sydney Sweeney will be “sapped” by tariffs put into place by President Trump, according to CNBC.
The Sweeney-focused ad campaign turned into a social media culture war after the right latched onto a narrative being pushed by a small minority that the ads were promoting “eugenics.” One ad that received particular attention saw Sweeney detail how “great jeans” — eye color, hair color, and personality — are passed down through generations.
American Eagle’s gains from Sydney Sweeney jeans ads to be “sapped” by tariffs
“Ahead of the clothing retailer’s second-quarter earnings release on Sept. 3, analyst Christopher Nardone downgraded shares to underperform from neutral. He also lowered his price objective to $10 per share from $11, which signals downside of more than 21% from Friday’s close. Nardone noted that the boost from the Sweeney ad push will be sapped by higher tariffs.”
“’AE and Aerie are in tough positions to navigate tariffs; we do not think that either brand has much pricing power,’ Nardone wrote. ‘We cut our F25/F26 EPS estimates by 8%/30% to $0.65/$0.95 to reflect the impact of higher tariffs and lower Aerie sales.’” [via CNBC]
Sweeney had a pair of films release in August, both of which bombed at the box office.
Americana, which she starred in alongside Halsey and Paul Walter Hauser, made just $500,000 at over 1,100 theaters during its opening weekend on August 15. Then, a week later, Ron Howard’s Eden — which also features Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Jude Law and Daniel Bruhl — made just $1 million at the domestic box office during its debut weekend on August 22.
Next up for Sweeney will be the Paul Feig-directed adaptation of the best-selling thriller novel The Housemaid, which releases on Christmas Day, and the third and final season of HBO’s Euphoria, which helped turned the actress into an A-lister.