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Elizabeth Powers

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  • 3 Unexpected Companies Profiting from Back-to-School

    By Elizabeth Powers - September 3, 2012 | Tickers: FB, GOOG, SBUX

    It’s no secret that back-to-school is the second most profitable time of the year, right after the Christmas season, for retail stores everywhere.  Specialty clothing chains target high school and college students dressing up their closets with fall fashions; Amazon.com and other comparable superstore/online giants hit home runs by offering apparel, school supplies, books, and technology all in the same place; Apple capitalizes off the school rush more »

  • 5 Things Every Young Investor Needs to Do

    By Elizabeth Powers - August 29, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, FB, GOOG, URBN, YHOO

    Of course, every young investor should religiously follow Warren Buffet’s famous advice to “Read everything you can.”  But what comes after that, once you’ve exhausted your city‘s supply of library books and the Internet’s supply of grossly conflicting analyst opinions?  Here, I share five lessons I learned firsthand from my early days as an investor.

    1. Invest something.  It doesn’t have to be all the more »

  • Is Urban Growth Unstoppable?

    By Elizabeth Powers - August 29, 2012 | Tickers: AEO, GPS, JCP, URBN, WMT

    Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) shocked and thrilled recently as second-quarter revenue shot up 11% and earnings 8.1%, trampling analyst estimates of 33 cents per share with an unprecedented 42 cents per share.  Traders ravenously jumped aboard the Urban train; the stock price skyrocketed more than 17% before the market even opened on the morning of August 21, and was finally settling around $37.19 by market close the more »

  • The Gap is Back

    By Elizabeth Powers - August 21, 2012 | Tickers: GPS, URBN, WMT

     

    I’ll admit it -- I was on edge before the second-quarter earnings release of Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) hit the public on Aug. 16.  Sure, I wanted the largest specialty retailer in the United States to pull through with solid margins and profit figures, but between closed stores, failed advertising campaigns, and the firing of head designer Patrick Robinson in May 2011 to top it all off, a fair share more »

  • The Fall of Fast Food?

    By Elizabeth Powers - August 16, 2012 | Tickers: BKW, CMG, MCD, PNRA, YUM

    If you invested $10,000 in McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) back in January 1970 when shares were 33 cents apiece, your portfolio would be worth over $2.6 million today.  McDonald’s stock has been an essential component of the balanced investor’s portfolio for decades, and with good reason: it’s provided stable growth and returns that consistently beat the S&P 500 (73.14% versus 50.51 more »

  • The JCP Reign of Terror

    By Elizabeth Powers - August 14, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, JCP, M, JWN, WMT

    A few weeks ago I was browsing through my local JC Penney (NYSE: JCP), and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.  Sure, a few departments had switched locations, the customer service desk was permanently closed down, and the usual hodgepodge of overstuffed racks and shelves were stripped bare, but none of these factors were the root of my unsettledness. 

    An employee friend ran up more »

  • Esotericism at its Finest

    By Elizabeth Powers - August 8, 2012 | Tickers: ANF, GPS, NES.DL, URBN

    From first glance, Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN) is stuck in a rut.  Its stock value never quite recovered from its March-October 2011 free-fall, dropping from a near-lifetime high of $38.50 on February 28 to $22.31 on September 26, losing 42% of its value in less than seven months.  In 2012, it can’t seem to cling to its $30 valuation- it hit the mark in both April and more »