All eyes on Iconix Brands’ performance after abrupt departure of CFO and COO

Many in the industry are closely following the performance of Iconix following the abrupt departures of its CFO and COO over the last month. As well as taking a toll on the firm’s share price over the past few weeks, the news have corked out speculations about what is really going on at the retailer.

“We believe that leadership uncertainty has largely influenced the recent stock price decline, down 25 percent since March 30,” recognized Iconix’ CEO Neil Cole in a note.

In this regard, Robert Drbul, analyst at Nomura Securities, added that while licensing revenue in the first quarter fell short of expectations, decreasing 15 percent to 95.4 million dollars, he remains “encouraged by Iconix’s international growth prospects and continues to admire the company’s strong free cash flow generation.”

Less confident on these figures, Citi Research analyst Kate McShane, took into account the weaker first-quarter results, as well as Cole’s addressing of the executive departures and adjusted at the down her earnings per share (EPS) estimate for FY15 to 3.01 dollars from 3.09 dollars.

Meanwhile, CL King & Associates analyst Steven Marotta maintained their ‘Buy’ recommendation on the stock, arguing that the retailer overall faced a tough comparison with last year’s same period’s performance.