there’s no shortage of reasons to worry about apparel sales shoppers already refreshed much of their wardrobes last year inflation is forcing consumers to make tough choices and that usually means buying essentials and pandemicdelayed services over clothes big players in the industry are offering steep discounts to move merchandise no wonder then that many apparel sellers have seen their stocks tumble this year goldman sachs argues that offpricers shouldn’t be among them analyst brooke roach initiated coverage on ross stores rost and burlington stores burl with buy ratings today and tjx  tjx  at neutral although her price targets—of 102 183 and 70 respectively—reflect doubledigit upside for all three stocks “today’s macro backdrop provides ample market share opportunity for offprice retail which we believe will be a tradedown beneficiary for consumers looking for attractivelypriced branded product” she writes “heavy industry inventory levels create tailwinds for all offprice business models even those with less developed buying programs…while we continue to see some headwinds from freight and wages we do see some signs that these pressures are beginning to ease alleviating a significant overhang on sector performance” she likes all three stocks although she sees the biggest potential gains for ross and burlington stocks highlighting the former’s ability to grab market share and the latter’s ongoing strategic transformation for tjx  she applauds the company’s “bestinclass distribution model and wellinvested brand” and expects it too will be a winner in the current environment however the stock has so far seen much less steeper losses than its offprice peers leading her to believe that its strengths are already well understood by the market that said investors aren’t keen on any of the stocks today in recent trading tjx is off 18 to 6147 ross is down 19 to 8073 and burlington is 12 lower to 14848