Sydney Sweeney Helped American Eagle Back Into the Spotlight. Can It Stay There?

There’s capturing attention and then there’s keeping it.

Whether American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), which not long ago managed the former, can do the latter, is the question facing investors today. So far, it has.

A pre-earnings bump helped the retailer’s shares finish May 13 at $12.55 a share—before the company pulled its outlook, sending the stock lower. Later that month it posted a larger-than-expected quarterly loss; the stock finished May a bit below $11. But it’s since climbed its way back, ending Friday at $12.85.

It got there in part thanks to a marketing campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney that reintroduced investors to its brand—while making it something of a cultural touchpoint. That energy may have moved on, with the latest brand to stir up sentiment being restaurant chain Cracker Barrel (CBRL)—but the stock has held on.

Wall Street doesn’t seem convinced that can continue. Bank of America analysts on Monday slapped a bearish rating on the shares, setting a $10 price target on the stock that is a buck below the Visible Alpha mean, cutting its outlook for profits and suggesting that it lacks pricing power that could help it navigate the effects of tariffs. (None of the analysts tracked by Visible Alpha have bullish ratings on the shares.)

“Near term, there is risk that the recent Sydney Sweeney campaign added momentum” to third-quarter sales, the analysts wrote. (Its next quarterly results are due Sept. 3, with Wall Street broadly expecting revenue to fall year-over-year.) “However, we do not assign a high likelihood that momentum from this campaign can fully inflect the business over the long run.”

American Eagle’s shares were down more than 1% in Monday trading. They’ve lost about one-quarter of their value in 2025.