Lift, support, fit. It's the talk of bras so it isn't a stretch to use those words to describe what's going on with Victoria's Secret.
The stock is getting a lift from a little support on Wall Street. And the reason why is because CEO Hillary Super is a good fit.
On Monday, shares were up 7.4% to $87.52 -- another step on the road that started shortly after Super stepped into the top job almost two years ago and zeroed in on turning around the ailing lingerie retailer.
The stock is up 334% over the past 12 months and 60% this year, according to Dow Jones Market Data. In those 12 months, the company's market capitalization has rocketed to 6.97 billion from $1.52 billion -- an increase of $5.45 billion.
For comparison, the State Street SPDR S&P Retail EFT has risen 4.8% in 2026 and 12% over the past 12 months.
Also on Monday, after almost eight months, Morgan Stanley's Alex Straton resumed coverage of the stock with an Overweight rating and a $99 price target. In December, the firm's rating was Equal Weight and the price target was $29.
Morgan Stanley's new price target represents a 15% upside from the stock's almost $87 in midday trading. The firm's bull case is for $141.
Straton handed out an Overweight rating because Victoria Secret's turnaround is "more durable than consensus currently assumes."
About a year ago, customers began to return to the brand and now like the merchandise enough to spend more year over year, wrote Straton, citing Morgan Stanley proprietary data.
"The recent consistency in this metric suggests VSXY is moving beyond a one-time traffic recovery and into the early stages of rebuilding customer loyalty," he wrote.
Straton also pointed out that customers are of different generations, not mostly from one as they had been.
"Taken together, these signals suggest VSXY is both attracting new customers and retaining existing ones," he wrote. "We think this can support a more durable sales and margin recovery."
In early June, the company reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings and raised its full-year guidance on the back of stronger sales and improved gross margins. And the stock changed its ticker to VSXY from VSCO.
The turnaround was all because of Super, who took over as CEO in September 2024 after leading Rihanna's fashion brand Savage x Fenty.
Super's mission was to revive the brand after years of slowing sales -- driven by pushback from women who criticized the company for its ultrasexy image and what they perceived as body-shaming.
Surprising, Super didn't dump the sexy image -- she updated it to include women of all sizes. She even relaunched the Victoria's Secret fashion show.
And Super has focused on bras and other undergarments as well as the teen brand, Pink. She is selling Victoria's Secret to girls and young women by putting its lingerie on TikTok.
Even the new ticker VSXY shows Super's touch.
"VSXY is recognizable and aligns with our strategy and the progress we've made," she said in a May 21 statement. "It reflects our conviction and confidence in this work. We're owning who we are, and we're proud of it."
A couple of weeks later, on the earnings call, Super told Wall Street just how important bras are to Victoria's Secret.
"When we win bras, we create a halo across the entire VS brand," Super said at the time, adding that Victoria's Secret is "really in its groove at the intersection of innovation, technical expertise, and fashion authority."
That's uplifting.
Write to Kit Norton at kit.norton@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 20, 2026 14:47 ET (18:47 GMT)
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