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Consumers are gearing up for the holiday shopping season, and Apple, Nike and Louis Vuitton could be the big winners in the key teenager demographic, according to a new survey from Piper Jaffray.
The firm conducted a survey of more than 1,000 US consumers, ranging in age from 18 to 65. After analyzing the responses from the upper-income teenage cohort, Piper Jaffray found that Apple was the “top-listed consumer brand for teens,” with AirPods the top desired product. Nike was the second-most mentioned brand, with its number of mentions more than tripling compared to 2018’s survey. Products from Louis Vuitton rounded out the list of teenagers’ most-desired items.
Piper Jaffray has an overweight rating on shares of Apple and Nike.
Ahead of the all-important holiday shopping season Piper said that the “consumer remains healthy” but that “stock selectivity is key given pockets of weakness in the dept. stores, specialty retail stores & mixed views on spending.”
With that in mind, and after analyzing all of the survey responses, Piper is also watching Activision Blizzard, Crocs, Lowe’s, Boot Barn and YETI ahead of the holidays.
For Activision Blizzard the firm said that strength in “Call of Duty” coupled with Fortnite’s waning popularity could drive outperformance, and for Crocs ongoing collaborations and product innovation could power sales.
The analysts led by Erinn Murphy noted strength in the housing backdrop as a catalyst for Lowe’s, while new initiatives and product launches are driving Boot Barn and Yeti.
In addition to liking Nike, the firm also has overweight ratings on Lululemon and V. F. Corp.
But the biggest overall winner could be Amazon. The survey found that consumers are expecting to make 46% of their purchases online, which will come at the expense of traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores.
“Proprietary retail model shows acceleration of AMZN at detriment to department and specialty stores,” the firm said.
– CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
