shares of steven madden ltd fell tuesday after wedbush analyst tom nikic backed away from his yearlong bullish stance one day before the footwear clothing and accessories company reports quarterly results saying he expects the company to lower its earnings outlook as the selling environment has deteriorated nikic cut his rating on the stock to neutral after being at outperform since october 2021 he lowered his price target by 33 to 29 from 43 with the new target nearly 1 below current prices the stock shoo lost 05 in morning trading after rallying 56 the past week leading up to results “our move to the sidelines is due to the deteriorating macro environment difficult compares high exposure to the challenging us wholesale channel and a highly discretionary category focus that may come under pressure now that consumers have ‘refreshed’ their closets amidst the covid reopening in late2021early2022” nikic wrote in a note to clients nikic’s concerns come as recent data showed that retail sales fell flat in september and consumer sentiment remained at historically negative levels as inflation and rising interest rates crimped spending steven madden is scheduled to report thirdquarter results on wednesday before the market opens analysts surveyed by factset project the company to report adjusted earnings per share of 78 cents down from 82 cents a year ago while revenue is expected to rise 15 to 533 million in the company’s secondquarter report the company affirmed its 2022 guidance ranges for adjusted eps of 290 to 300 and revenue growth of 13 to 16 after raising guidance in the firstquarter report wedbush’s nikic said he believes the thirdquarter results “should be ok” but he expects a downward guidance revision “predominantly in q4” and possibly beyond “management is known for being highly transparent which means that if trends are deteriorating they’re probably not going to sugarcoat it which could make for a downbeat conference call” nikic wrote the stock had run up 120 in october to snap a fivemonth losing streak in which it plunged 350 the stock had closed at sept 30 at a 22month low it has shed 360 year to date while the spdr sp retail exchangetraded fund xrt has dropped 305 and the sp 500 index spx has declined 193 nikic noted that it took steven madden a long time to recover from covid as its wholesale partners were slow to restock the company’s core categories but following “a major restock” in late2021early2022 he said the company now faces “extremely difficult” yearoveryear comparisons in the coming quarters at the same time retailers have been experiencing some slowing demand that doesn’t give investors reason to be very optimistic the company shoo will witness much growth in the next six to 12 months “we continue to believe that shoo is a wellrun company with a strong balance sheet but we don’t think the stock can ‘work’ in the current environment when sales are decelerating and likely turning sharply negative in q4 and there lacks a compelling narrative to get investors excited again” nikic wrote