UPDATE: Stifel Reiterates On Sothebys Ahead Of Hong Kong Auctions

In a report published Tuesday, Stifel analyst David Schick reiterated a Buy rating on Sothebys (NYSE: BID), but lowered the price target from $65.00 to $50.00.

In the report, Stifel noted, “We think this underscores recent commentary from other luxury brands that there's some incremental deceleration happening in China (there's been a number of warning signs). Art supply can be quite volatile and it's difficult to procure consignment when the luxury consumer is delaying new purchases (sellers wait because they don't think they are getting the best price). Even excluding the difficult compares from the 40th anniversary sale, a negative run rate was not expected, in our view. As a result, we are lowering our 4Q14 EPS estimates and our price target to reflect lower than expected aggregate auction sales (now modeling 4Q14 total down -5% vs. +5% prior as HK Week represents about 20% of 4Q sales). Our FY14 estimates are supported by better than expected auction results in 3Q14 and we think trends in North America and Europe remain largely unchanged (though we will get a better look with upcoming major I&M and Contemporary catalogs).”

Sothebys closed on Monday at $36.20.