AEO & Moncler, big movers on big quarterly gains

American Eagle Outfitters and Moncler made it to the news on Thursday after both companies saw their respective stocks boosted on better-than-expected quarterly results. Italian apparel stocks fared well as well, spurred by the last CEB’s stimulus.

European stocks were set to rise on Thursday, with a batch of company results in focus ahead of the European Central bank meeting at which it is set to give further details on its massive bond-buying programme, reported Reuters.

In Italy, Luxottica advanced 2.49 percent to 55.55 euro while Salvatore Ferragamo added 1.71 percent to 27.95 euro. Tod's scratched 5.97 percent to 96.65 euro. On a related note, Benetton gained traction on the alleged talks of the family-run company might divest from DWF in the coming days.

Across the Pond, American Eagle Outfitters‘ (NYSE:AEO) stock rose by more than 7 percent after it reported better-than-expected results for its fourth quarter fiscal 2014 and guided its fiscal first quarter 2015 earnings per share (EPS) ahead of analysts’ estimates.

The retailer’s net revenues for the fourth quarter increased 3 percent to 1.07 billion dollars, just ahead of the market consensus of 1.06 billion dollars. Its EPS increased a much more sizable 33 percent to 36 cents a share, beating analysts’ estimate of 34 cents a share. While comparable sales for the quarter remained flat, American Eagle’s gross profits increased 13 percent driven by 320 basis points improvement in gross margins.

Finally, Quicksilver (NYSE: ZQK) announced that it has postponed the distribution of its 2015 first quarter earnings release, as well as the related conference call and webcast previously scheduled to take place on March, 5, as a result of a revenue cut-off issue identified by management and brought to the attention of the Audit Committee. The stock was among the big winners of the FashionUnited Top 100 Index.