By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Crocs stock (NASDAQ:CROX) rose 4.6% Wednesday as Piper Sandler named the company as its top idea for 2022, raising the target to $246.
The new target is 88% higher than the stock’s current level of $131 and over 14% more than the brokerage’s previous target of $215.
According to analyst Erinn Murphy, the company will be one of the most impressive consumer growth stories for several years to come. The brokerage met the footwear-maker’s management and said its tone was bullish on both the trajectory of Crocs and the significant opportunity of Heydude, a privately-owned company it agreed to acquire last month.
Upon completion of the transaction, which is expected to happen by March, the casual footwear brand will operate as a standalone division of Crocs.
Murphy said the company didn’t see notable impacts from Omicron during the holidays and saw strong full-price selling and healthy traffic. Europe, Middle East and Africa also performed much better than expectations, the company told the brokerage, according to the report.
Crocs shares more than doubled last year, a reflection of its comeback from a near bankruptcy a few years ago. The company expects to hit $5 billion in revenue by 2026. According to Bloomberg, analysts project current-year sales to be $2.27 billion.