Deckers Was Down 42% and Left for Dead… Then One Surprise Sent Wall Street Scrambling Back

Sometimes, all it takes is one little spark. A whisper of optimism. A decent earnings report and a Wall Street upgrade… and suddenly, the same company that was getting dunked on for months is back in the group chat. 

That’s exactly what happened with Deckers Outdoor this week, after TD Cowen awarded a fresh $154 price target on the stock and called it “one of the highest quality businesses and financial models in the sector.”

This upgrade came right after Deckers dropped a surprisingly strong earnings report, sending shares up as much as 13% in early trading Friday. If you’ve been watching this stock get kicked around all year (down nearly 50% year-to-date) this bounce was definitely a big surprise.

Believe it or not, this rally had nothing to do with meme-stock magic. There were no Reddit bros chanting “UGG to the moon,” and no viral TikToks showing influencers sprinting to Pilates in HOKAs…  just boring, old-school fundamentals doing the talking (gross, I know). Let’s start with the numbers: revenue came in at $964.5 million, up 17% from last year and way ahead of the $901 million analysts were hoping for (aka guessing). Earnings per share hit $0.93, absolutely destroying the $0.68 estimate.

To put it another way, Deckers cleared the bar by a mile. And once those numbers dropped Wall Street analysts across the globe rushed to update their “we never doubted you” narratives. TD Cowen led the pack with a $154 price target, calling Deckers “one of the highest-quality businesses in the sector” (funny how strong earnings magically improve your quality score). Raymond James moved up to $137, Citi tossed out $150, and Evercore ISI bumped theirs to $115, tipping their hat to strong brand momentum and good timing on the wholesale side.

If you’re wondering “what’s driving the growth?” Two words: international sales. While U.S. revenue dropped 2.8%, overseas shoppers went full send. International sales spiked nearly 50%, powered by demand from Europe and China. And leading the charge were the usual suspects: HOKA and UGG. No surprises there… HOKA continues to crush it, and UGG is living up to its name in the best way possible.

HOKA posted a 20% jump, logging its biggest quarter ever, while UGG wasn’t far behind with 19% growth… thanks to a loyal fanbase that clearly values comfort over style (no judgment… okay, maybe a little). On the earnings call, CEO Stefano Caroti admitted that the U.S. consumer is flaky right now, but the rest of the world is carrying sales singlehandedly.

Now, it wasn’t all sunshine. Deckers is still dealing with $185 million in added costs from tariffs this year. Their solution was to raise prices on some HOKA models which started on July 1st. And get this… to far, not a single consumer has flinched. CFO Steven Fasching said there’s been no material impact on demand… which is pretty amazing.

And behind the scenes, Deckers is looking financially responsible with $1.7 billion in cash and zero debt. That’s unicorn stuff for a retail company. Oh, and the P/E ratio is just 16x, which, compared to Nike’s 29x, feels like finding Gucci shoes at a Ross price.

Sidenote: I try not to only talk about tech and AI… even if that’s where all the noise is. Deckers is a good reminder that retail isn’t dead, no matter how empty your local mall looks. Some companies are still out here making money the old-fashioned way: selling stuff people actually want.

At the time this article was published Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in article.