July 6, 2023 | Daily JAM, Videos |
Today’s video is Investing in Inflation. I went shopping at Costco and Target on the Saturday before July 4 and didn’t buy anything at either store.But for two very different reasons. Costco was mobbed with lines longer than I’ve ever seen and Target was nearly empty, as were many of its shelves. While Target does sell some groceries, it’s not a destination for bargain-hungry food shoppers that Costco is. Headline inflation–or “all-item” inflation–is down, but core inflation, which includes food, is still at 5.3%. That’s enough price inflation to hurt and consumers are looking to focus on saving pennies and dollars at a store like Costco. A comparison chart of Target and Costco stocks shows a huge divergence in May between the two retailers, with Costco marching steadily up, and Target diving down. I don’t expect core inflation to come down dramatically any time soon, so investing in inflation is a good bet here. Check back tomorrow for a stock play on high core inflation.
May 23, 2023 | COST, Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, WMT |
More woe for the retail sector this morning BJ’s Wholesale (BJ) reported first-quarter results before the market open that missed expectations for same-store sales growth (with earnings per share matching estimates.) The big killer, though, was guidance from the company that said second-quarter comparable store sales are tracking below the 5.7% increase in the first quarter. That 5.7% growth in first-quarter comparable store sales was below the 5.9% that Wall Street analysts had expected. The stock closed today down 7.26% on the day.
May 17, 2023 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing |
Target (TGT) easily beat Wall Street earnings projections for the company’s fiscal first quarter with a report yesterday May 16 after the close with a report of $2.05 a share. Analysts were looking for $1.80 a share. Earnings were down, however, 6.2% year-over-year. But like Home Depot yesterday, Target warned that consumers are hesitant to make discretionary purchases.
August 23, 2022 | Daily JAM |
It’s not a surprise. But it is a reminder of a continued negative trend for retailers in a slowing economy. Today, August 23, in its second-quarter earnings report Macy’s (M) lowered guidance for the remainder of 2022 on higher inventories of unsold goods and slower sales.
June 7, 2022 | COST, Daily JAM, Jubak Picks, WMT |
Target (TGT) cut its profit outlook for the second time in three weeks. The company will attack oaring inventories in discretionary categories such as home furnishings with price mark downs, cancelling orders from vendors, and “off-loading excess inventory. (To deep discount sellers, I’d assume.) Three weeks ago, on May 18, the retailer’s shares slumped more than 25% after reporting that net profit shrank 52% in the first quarter. In those quarterly results, Target said its inventory rose 43%, compared with a year earlier.
In its guidance for the second quarter on May 18 Target said operating margins for the second quarter would be in a range centered around 5.3%. In today’s inventory warning the company said that orating margin would fall to 2%. Target’s stock, which fell as much as 7% today on the news, closed down 2.22% today. Shares of competitors Walmart (WMT) and Costco (COST) were down only 1.24% and 0.15%, respectively.
May 18, 2022 | COST, Daily JAM, Jubak Picks, Morning Briefing, WMT |
As of 3:30 p.m. Wednesday May 18 shares of Target (TGT) were down 25% for the day after the company reported a big earnings miss for the first quarter. Let’s be clear. The sales picture at Target was very positive for the quarter. Same store sales were up 3.3% in the quarter. That was about three times higher than Wall Street analysts had expected. Revenue was up 4%. Here again Target’s $25.2 billion in revenue beat expectations for $24.3 billion in revenue. But earnings were terrible at $2.19 a share versus forecasts for $3.05 a share.
November 20, 2018 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term |
The hope among some in the Wall Street crowd was that today's earnings reports from retailers such as Target (TGT) and Kohl's (KSS) --and especially guidance for the Christmas shopping quarter to come--would end the plunge in the U.S. stock market for at least a day....
May 15, 2018 | Daily JAM, Notes You Need |
In my daily trawling through the market I come upon lots of tidbits of knowledge that I think are important to investors but that don’t justify a full post. I’ve decided to start compiling these notes here each day in a kind of running mini blog that I’m calling Notes You Need. Today’s 10:20 post is a representative item: “10:20 a.m.: Target (TGT) has cut its next-day delivery fee nearly in half in one of the most visible efforts to capitalize on Amazon’s (AMZN) decision to raise the price of its annual Prime membership to $119 from $99. Target has dropped the delivery price for household essentials to $2.99 from $4.99 and waived it altogether for customers paying with a Target card. The Target Restock service lets shoppers get 35,000 everyday items like paper towels and baby food for a flat delivery fee. And as Target noted in announcing the cuts, “Membership fee? Nope.” Target has also teamed with Google Home to let customers restock with a voice command using Google’s Alexa.”
February 28, 2017 | Daily JAM |
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September 14, 2016 | Daily JAM, Long Term, Morning Briefing, Volatility, You Might Have Missed |
In 2015, median household income rose 5.2% when adjusted for inflation from 2014. But all the income gains, the Census data show, came in cities and suburbs and none flowed to rural areas.
