Bloody Thursday for traded fashion names as Mizuho downgrades five stocks

Thursday was quite a bumpy day for publicly traded fashion companies, which closed the session with generalised losses and many names into the red as analyst at Mizuho cut down her recommendations on five leading stocks.

Mizuho downgraded five stocks and said weak traffic trends surfacing for the spring season may last through the year, largely dragging apparel retailers’ stocks Thursday.

Men’s Wearhouse owner Tailored Brands Inc. was one of the companies worst affected, shredding over 32 percent of its value by the close of the market. Analyst Betty Chen downgraded DSW Inc. DSW, (-1.07 percent) , Express Inc. EXPR, (-0.11 percent), Finish Line Inc. FINL, (-3.43 percent) and Tailored Brands TLRD, (-32.22 percent) to ‘neutral’ from ‘buy’, and downgraded Guess Inc. GES, (-4.80 percent) to ‘underperform’ from ‘neutral’.

“While one may argue we are downgrading when these stocks already at the ‘bottom,’ we believe ongoing negative traffic trends and heightened competitive environment will either prolong a turnaround in the case of EXPR, GES and TLRD or lead to disappointing outlook at DSW and FINL,” Chen wrote in a note.