John Zolidis

Investors are waiting for more details to emerge as the Columbus, Ohio-based company plans to host a meeting on September 10. L Brands stock has lost 80% of its value since peaking in 2016.

“Victoria’s Secret is at a very critical juncture in its existence,” John Zolidis, president of independent investor advisor Quo Vadis Capital, said in a note, adding that he plans to travel to the meeting. “[I] want to see first-hand if the company has the wherewithal and courage to transform its brand image from an elitist-aspirational positioning to the body-positive approach working with women today.”

He won’t be the only one watching for that.

John Zolidis, president of Quo Vadis, says his perspective on Walmart hasn’t changed in two years.

“Walmart is well into the process of transforming a traditional, terrestrial retail model into a transactional-model optimized for a digitally-equipped consumer,” he wrote. “This new model leverages Walmart’s historical advantages including scale, supply-chain, low-price positioning, and store locations with digital capabilities highlighted by grocery pickup, a vast selection, a portfolio of new owned brands, and delivery.”

Shake Shack’s big gains on Wall Street have surprised some analysts who follow the fast food service sector. John Zolidis is one of them, as he isn’t impressed with the company’s most recent earnings report and guidance.

“Shake Shack (SHAK) reported figures that were generally in-line with our expectations for upside on the top-line but weakness in margins,” he says. “The company reduced its full-year restaurant level margin target to ‘approximately 23%’ from ‘near the low end of 23%-24%’. The company didn’t justify this change, which was made concurrent with lifting the outlook for total sales. However, we believe a factor is the ongoing sequential weakening of new units, which missed our assumption for the quarter.”

“Revenue, and EPS upside and a guide-up all serve to support the stock’s 13-year high valuation,” said John Zolidis, following the release of strong financial results last week for Starbucks. “We continue to like the shares long, for the reasons we have reiterated (global growth, ROIC profile, FCF, return of capital, innovation in product and technology) although the name is not for the valuation sensitive and we do expect a period of consolidation at some point.”

“The way we see the shares here is that the debate about whether the brand can recover from food safety issues in an environment of increased competition is over, and the stock performance now turns on the whether the rate of recovery can exceed expectations currently factored into estimates and valuation,” wrote John Zolidis, president of Quo Vadis Capital.

“Target has every reason to be failing right now,” wrote John Zolidis of Quo Vadis Capital in New York. “Its largest competitors are spending aggressively to take share. The weather is always bad.” But the retailer keeps outperforming, he continued, because it has a strategy “designed for this environment.” (It doesn’t hurt that a lot of other retailers are doing so poorly, he adds.)