Posts related to ‘Consumer Goods’

Retail Gimmicks More Fine-Tuned for Black Friday (AAPL, AMZN, WMT, BBY, COST, TGT, KSS, M, JWN)

Black Friday is under 48 hours away.  We have seen much data and much analysis out there on the topic, but there are two fairly easy conclusions here…. well, make it three.  First and foremost is that consumers are still going to get deals galore.  The add-in third notion, or the second, is that inventories at stores are going to be very low and many items may have to be bought online (with free or low shipping to boot).  But the big conclusion here is that it seems a foregone conclusion that the great deals and (quasi-) price matching and free shipping offered by retailers are still likely to create margin pressure for the retailers even if they have strong top-line sales data.

This is a sampling review of some of the promotions from major retailers.  No particular order has been given.  Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) are worth note, but the major retailers featured are Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT), Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT), Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS), Macy’s, Inc. (NYSE: M), and Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN).
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Posted on: November 25, 2009 – 11:51 am in Consumer Electronics, Consumer Goods, Internet, Luxury, Product Review, Retail, , , , , , , , ,

Jobless Data Triumphs in Economic Data Deluge

We just had a deluge of economic data in Personal Income & Spending for September, a rather solid figure on weekly jobless claims and in continuing jobless claims, and a somewhat tepid durable goods orders data.  While there is still nothing robust, the jobs data this morning is the tipping point that allowed equities to run higher.

Posted on: November 25, 2009 – 8:43 am in Consumer Electronics, Consumer Goods, Economy, Labor & Unions

eBay Crashes on Saturday (EBAY)

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is having an issue which may have just cost sellers millions and millions of dollars in untold profits today.  After doing random searches today on Christmas present purchases and with eBay being one of the online destinations, it was suddenly clear that something was wrong on eBay.  The system was not working if you did not already have your item numbers known.  Search functions yielded nothing and stores were out.  If this were to happen after midnight on a Tuesday, it might not matter.  But this outage is on a weekend day when so many buyers and sellers aren’t at work and are able to spend the effort to go eBaying.

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Posted on: November 21, 2009 – 6:51 pm in Consumer Electronics, Consumer Goods, Internet, Luxury, Product Review, Retail,

52-Week High Club

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (NYSE: BNI) surged close to 30% to a yearly high of $97.59 following news that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) will be buying the freight rail operator for $100 per share, which places the value of the company at $44 billion.

The Black & Decker Corporation (NYSE: BDK) rallied close to 30% to a yearly high of $61.79  following news that the tool makers has agreed to be purchased by Stanley Works (NYSE: SWK) in an all stock deal valued at $4.5 billion.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (NASDAQ: CTSH) rose over 8% to a yearly high of $42.40.  The computer services and technology consulting company announced that its 3Q 09 profit rose roughly 21%, beating analyst estimates.  The company also raised its 2009 profit estimate to $1.88 per share from $1.78 per share.

Landry’s Restaurants (NYSE: LNY) rose over 25% to a yearly high of $13.99.  The restaurant, hospitality and entertainment company following rose on news that the company’s chief executive, Timothy J. Fertitta has agreed to purchase the company for $14.75 per share, or $1.2 billion.

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: November 3, 2009 – 4:03 pm in Buffett, Consumer Goods, Earnings, Food, Hardware, Mergers and Buy Outs, Technology Companies, , , , , , ,

Tech M&A King Cisco (CSCO) Pushes Into The Living Room

TVCisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) may control most of the global router and enterprise video conferencing business, but it wants a bigger footprint in home video delivery. Silicon Valley’s biggest M&A machine has snapped up China set-top box company DVN for $44.5 million.

Cisco already has a large set-top business in the US, but the Chinese market has 160 million cable subscribers and that makes it the most promising market for set-top sales in the world. Read More »

Posted on: November 3, 2009 – 6:12 am in Consumer Goods, Mergers and Buy Outs, , ,

Stanley Wants Bigger Tool Works (SWK, BDK, SNA)

Money ImageThe tool sector for builders and home repair is about to get a lot smaller for investors looking for diversification of company choices to invest in.  The Stanley Works (NYSE: SWK) and The Black & Decker Corporation (NYSE: BDK) have proposed a merger which would unite the brands.  The companies see accretion to earnings per share of about $1.00 per share by year three with some $350 million in cost synergies.  This deal is a stock for stock merger where Black & Decker shareholders would receive a fixed shares ratio of 1.275 shares Of Stanley common stock per 1 share held of Black & Decker common stock.
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Posted on: November 2, 2009 – 4:57 pm in Consumer Goods, Housing, Mergers and Buy Outs, , ,

Personal Income & Spending Dispel Inflation Fears

Money ImageThe consumer is still strapped.  The Commerce Department posted its data for September’s personal income and spending, and frankly it almost makes you question yesterday’s GDP data.  The report showed that Personal Income was unchanged in September, but showed that Spending was down by -0.5%.  Dow Jones and other consensus data were looking for figures to be largely unchanged.  The drop in spending appears to the worst reading this year, but there is a silver lining… with no income rise there is that much less fear of a heating inflation tea kettle.
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Posted on: October 30, 2009 – 8:41 am in Consumer Goods, Economy

Wal-Mart Outlines 2010-2011 Growth Plans (WMT)

WalMart LogoWal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has been having its analyst meeting this week and we now have a release from the company showing its growth plan next year.  This also updates the cap-ex fiscal year ending on Jan. 31, 2011.  As Wal-Mart is one of the stocks that the rally has left behind, it is not that surprising that the company is not just sitting on its hands.
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Posted on: October 22, 2009 – 3:06 pm in Consumer Goods, Retail,

Wholesale Inflation Remains Muted

Money ImageThe Labor Department has released the September Producer Price Index, the measure of wholesale inflation.  We did see a slightly raised Consumer Price Index last week and that had many of the inflation bugs on edge for the wholesale data.  Yet the inflationary pressure appears to be remaining tame.  The headline PPI came in at -0.6% after showing a +1.7% gain in August, and estimates from Dow Jones were -0.2% and estimates from Bloomberg were -0.3%.  The core rate of ex-food and energy came in at -0.1% versus a Dow Jones consensus of +0.1% and a Bloomberg consensus of +0.1%.
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Posted on: October 20, 2009 – 8:43 am in Business Services, Consumer Goods, Economy

What Inflation?

Money ImageWe have just gotten the Labor Department’s measure of retail inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index.  The September reading still has inflation running tame, and many will be watching for more of the Producer Price Index data as a result to try to interpret when suppliers and wholesalers will have to finally pass inflation on down to the public at the consumer level.  The September CPI came in at +0.2% versus a Bloomberg consensus reading of +0.1% expected.  The core CPI, ex-food and energy, rose also by +0.2% versus the Bloomberg consensus estimate of +0.1%.

These figures are still far short of any sinister inflationary scenario.  But with the mountain of money that has been printed, with gold over $1,000 and with oil back over $75.00, the inflation-bugs are getting more and more ammo to support their thesis.  The feeling is that inflation is not yet here.  Yet.

JON C. OGG

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Posted on: October 15, 2009 – 8:43 am in Consumer Goods, Economy

Stocks That Missed the Rally (ABT, MO, AWK, BKC, ENER, GENZ, KR, ORB, WMT, LEAP, PCS)

Here we are going into yet another earnings season.  We saw Monday how the market has rallied significantly from the March lows and the major indexes are even up in positive territory for the 2009 calendar.  The DJIA is up 51% from its absolute lows of March, and the S&P 500 has rallied more than 61% from its absolute lows in March.  If you look at the December 31, 2008 closing bell levels, the DJIA is now up about 12.75% and the S&P 500 is now up more than 19% year-to-date.

But almost as always, there are still some key very large and/or very active stocks which have not recovered anywhere close to the same amounts with the overall stock markets.  Some of these lagging stocks are Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT), Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), American Water Works Company, Inc. (NYSE: AWK), Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC), Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER), Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ), Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), Orbital Sciences Corp. (NYSE: ORB) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT).  Two similar situation stocks that are Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) and MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS).  We wanted to explore the forward values and relative performance, and the consensus estimates based upon Thomson Reuters data.  Only two of these stocks have market capitalization rates under $1 billion, and almost all are very actively traded and well known in their sectors.
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Posted on: October 12, 2009 – 5:03 pm in Biotech, Charts, Consumer Goods, Defensive Stocks, Dividend, Editor's Picks, Retail, Utilities, Value Investing, Water, , , , , , , , , , ,

Is Clorox Really Buyout Bait? (CLX, PG)

Bull and Bear ImageClorox Corporation (NYSE: CLX) gave us a volume alert earlier today which was later summarized over for Volume Spike.  This generally slow-moving consumer products company is trading up with elevated stock volume and with more elevated options trading.  The rumor is that Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is a possible suitor, although there might be some pause over this notion.
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Posted on: September 22, 2009 – 2:49 pm in Consumer Goods, Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors, Trading Alert, ,

Martha Stewart Lands at Home Depot (MSO, HD, SHLD, M)

Martha Stewart ImageHD LogoMartha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. (NYSE: MSO) has a new exclusive product lineup partner. We still want to know where Martha will end up after the K-Mart deal she has with Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) expires, although a new partnership unveiled today does not specifically address that question and does not sound  “exclusive” despite the term being used.

The Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD) announced an agreement today with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia to develop an exclusive Martha Stewart Living brand of home improvement products.  It was not noted that this will have any impact on the K-Mart agreement and it still notes that Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) is one of the many retailers where Martha Stewart products will be available.
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Posted on: September 14, 2009 – 4:40 pm in Consumer Goods, Entertainment, Housing, Luxury, Product Review, Retail, , , ,

Major Earnings on Deck This Coming Week (ADBE, BBY, KR, ORCL, DFS, FDX, PALM, PIR, JAVA)

bull-and-bear-image2We have a little flurry of key earnings coming this week.  We have provided detailed earnings estimates with Thomson Reuters consensus figures, with our own color for the recent performance, the charts, options, and other critical data when and where it stood out.  The companies covered are Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE), Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY), The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), FedEx (NYSE: FDX), Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM), and Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (NYSE: PIR).
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Posted on: September 12, 2009 – 12:29 pm in Calendar, Consumer Electronics, Consumer Goods, Earnings, Food, Retail, Technology Companies, , , , , , , , ,

Budweiser Returns For US Investors (BUD, TAP, SAM, HOOK)

Bud Image Budweiser is back for US investors.  It has been some time that US investors have been able to invest in an large beer company since  Anheuser-Busch was acquired by InBev.  But it is coming back to a US-stock-listing. Anheuser-Busch InBev has announced that starting Wednesday, September 16, its ADR will list on the NYSE under the old “BUD” ticker.  The NYSE listing upgrades the company´s existing Level I ADR program, which was launched on July 1, 2009.

It has been hard for US investors to invest in the beer market.  Molson Coors Brewing Company (NYSE: TAP) was the largest, and despite its Denver HQ many are under the impression that they are investing in the Canadian Molson beer company since Coors and Molson merged.  Besides that for US-beer plays, investors have only had Boston Beer Co. Inc. (NYSE: SAM) with a small $550 million market cap and the micro-cap stock Craft Brewers Alliance Inc.   (NASDAQ: HOOK) to invest in with its $57 million market cap.

Following the Peter Lynch mantra, investors can once again invest in the company of a brand they regularly use.

JON C. OGG
September 11, 2009

Posted on: September 11, 2009 – 12:42 pm in ADR, Buffett, Calendar, Consumer Goods, Editor's Picks, Exchange News, Food, Mergers and Buy Outs, Product Review, Retail, , , ,

Transports Seeing Mixed Show on FedEx Guidance Hike (FDX, UPS, UNP, CSX, YRCW, NSC, KSU, BNI, JBHT, CNW, LSTR)

FedEx Logo PicWe just noticed over at our volume spike alert service that FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) was already challenging 150% of its average volume and was triple volume what it normally has traded by this time of the morning. This was really ramping up rival United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) with a 4% gain, and was taking up lesser players in the space as well.  But interestingly enough, this is not doing anything to boost the trading volume in railroad stocks. Railroad giants like Union Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) and CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) are even lower on the day.  YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) is up significantly, and most truckers are up in sympathy.
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Posted on: September 11, 2009 – 11:33 am in Consumer Goods, Trading Alert, Transports, , , , , , , , , , ,

Wal-Mart’s Duke Outlines New Normal and Late Christmas (WMT)

WalMart LogoWal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) presented today at the Goldman Sachs retail conference.  This was one of the new CEO Mike Duke’s first presentations since taking the top position at the world’s largest retailer.  Goldman Sachs was looking to see how customer spending and behavior is going now that the customer is shifting back toward a more rational behavior
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Posted on: September 10, 2009 – 3:55 pm in Consumer Goods, Retail,

Walmart.com Can’t Dupe Amazon or eBay (WMT, AMZN, EBAY)

The recent news about Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) increasing third party item selling via the Walmart.com shopping portal is getting some increased traction…. But the question is really, “Should it?”…  The real fear for the Walmart critics and for those who love the online web experience of the other dominant web retailers is that Walmart might be able to take business from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) or eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY).  While technically any company in the world can become the next biggest and best thing in any aspect of the internet, that notion is becoming harder and harder to duplicate as the internet matures.  We took a deeper look into this and it really seems that the notion that Walmart would be able to take down the rest of the major online selling universe is just not very plausible.
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Posted on: September 1, 2009 – 10:30 am in Consumer Goods, Internet, Retail, , ,

Durable Goods Hit 2-Year High

Money Stack ImageDurable Goods is always one of the most volatile of all big economic numbers, and the report this morning for July is proving that to be the case.  The headline durable goods reading came in at +4.9% rather than +3% expected from Dow Jones and from -1.3% as the revised June reading.  On an ex-transportation basis, that figure was +0.8% for July from a revised +2.5% in June.  On an ex-defense basis, that was +4.3% from a revised +0.7% in June.  This actually looks to be the largest gains in almost two-years.
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Posted on: August 26, 2009 – 8:42 am in Consumer Goods, Economy, Retail

Vitacost.com Sets IPO Terms (VITC)

vitacost logoVitacost.com, Inc. has set the terms for its upcoming IPO.  The online and catalog seller of vitamins, supplements, and other personal care products is selling 11 million shares, with 4,495,987 shares being sold by the company and some 6,504,013 shares are being sold by holders.  The price range has been indicated as $11 to $13 per share, and it will trade under the NASDAQ ticker “VITC.”
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Posted on: August 24, 2009 – 3:06 pm in Consumer Goods, IPOs, Internet, Retail,