Browse by ▼

Consumer Discretionary

  • Time to Switch Houses?

    By Justin Carley - August 29, 2012 | Tickers: HD, LOW, SWK, TPX, TOL

    There has been much chatter recently about the great recovery in housing that is about to take place.  Count me as one of the skeptics as I believe the data has been grossly overstated to support the bullish thesis.

    Take for instance the recent new home sales release for the month of July, which showed seasonally adjusted new home sales eclipsing 372,000 at an annual rate.  This exceeded estimates more »

  • 4 Stocks Vulnerable to Amazon’s Same-Day Delivery

    By Justin Carley - August 9, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, AZO, HD, LOW, PETM

    At first glance, Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) recent announcement of same-day shipping seems like a continuation of the company’s sales growth ambitions in the absence of profits. 

    Same-day shipping will be a process that evolves in coming quarters and won’t be cheap.  Amazon continues to build out their distribution platform, along with requiring sales taxes in such states, while making little to no money in the process.  The more »

  • Three Beaten Down Consumer Names

    By Matthew DiLallo - July 24, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, NILE, GMCR, NFLX, SBUX

    I think that it goes without saying that every investor needs to have a watch list.  It enables you to take a step back and avoid the temptation of buying a stock the moment it catches your attention.  I’ve been building a watch list of high growth companies to invest in with income generated from a paper trading portfolio I’m calling the “No Drip, No Mess” Portfolio.  Today more »

  • Zombie Apocalypse or Epic Buying Opportunity?

    By Liz Hoffmann - July 20, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, GIS, GRPN, KRFT, PG | Editor's Choice

    We've all heard the hype about an impending Zombie Apocalypse.  You know, the day when some random nuclear event awakens, animates, and emboldens zombies everywhere. Hungry zombies will roam the countryside in throngs, seeking out that broken-down bus of hapless tourists.  The tourists will be stuck in the middle of the woods, it will be either dawn or twilight, and every single one of them will be immobilized with more »

  • The One Small Cap I’m Buying Today

    By Matthew DiLallo - July 6, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, CYH, PETS, PETM, WOOF, WMT

    If you’ve followed me in building the “No Drip, No Mess” Portfolio you’ll know that I just can’t seem to get over writing puts on dividend paying stocks. This time however, instead of writing puts to get a boring slow grower, I’m writing puts on a much more volatile small cap. PetMed Express (NASDAQ: PETS) is a nationwide pet pharmacy that markets both prescription and non-prescription more »

  • Will Europe Kill These 4 Dividend Paying Stocks?

    By Justin Carley - June 29, 2012 | Tickers: CLF, ENR, FCX, MCD

    Earlier this week I discussed some options that investors should consider buying to Euro-proof their portfolios.  Now I want to look at names that should be sold to Euro-proof one’s portfolio.  This weekend presents yet another EU Summit with the likely outcome a bunch of headline quotes, but no on-the-ground action to stem the sinking economic outlook in the region.  This dynamic should raise a red flag on equities more »

  • PetSmart is Returning Cash to Shareholders, Can they Keep it Up?

    By Matthew DiLallo - June 19, 2012 | Tickers: PETS, PETM, PFE

    Shares of PetSmart (NASDAQ: PETM) pounced up over 3.5% after announcing an 18% increase to their dividend and a new $525 million share repurchase authorization.  In the press release announcing the return of capital plan, CEO Bob Moran said, "We believe the stability and predictability of our cash flow demonstrates the continued strength of our business."  The question shareholders should be asking is if they can keep it up more »

  • The Three Restaurant Stocks at the Top of My Watch List

    By Matthew DiLallo - June 3, 2012 | Tickers: ARCO, BWLD, CMG, MCD

    I’m continuing to build a watch list of companies that I am interested in adding to my paper trading portfolio that I call the “No Drip, No Mess” Portfolio. Today I am adding three fast growing restaurant stocks to my watch list and I’ll look to add one of these companies to the portfolio in the near future. I believe that each of these companies are still in more »

  • Get Ready for Summer: Add Scotts Miracle-Gro to your Portfolio

    By Frank Constantino - May 21, 2012 | Tickers: MON, SMG

    You don't have to love the smell of fresh-cut grass to love shares of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE: SMG).  However, if you are proud of your green thumb, you probably use their products - and may swear by them.  In talking with lawn and garden enthusiasts for this article, I came to realize that Scotts has a loyal customer base that believes in their premium quality merchandise.

    Scotts develops more »

  • Why Crude Oil Price Drop Makes McDonald's, Netflix and Dollar General Buys

    By Michael Mistaleski - May 16, 2012 | Tickers: DG, MCD, NFLX

    Oil futures are finally coming down instead of going up. The International Energy Agency said that the global oil supply rose 600,000 barrels per day in April even with the tightening of Iran's exports by sanctions! Yet on such wonderful news, the market is going lower with the price of crude.

    My opinion is that nothing is better for the global economy than for oil prices to come more »

  • Decisions, Decisions: Ford, Honda or GM

    By Tim Brugger - April 27, 2012 | Tickers: F, GM, HMC | Editor's Choice

    Let’s assume for a moment you – like many – feel pretty good about the prospects for automakers for the balance of this year, and even into next. And why not, there’s a lot to like. Setting Europe in general and Spain in particular aside for a moment, most domestic indicators point to a great year for car sales. Consumer confidence is improving right along with spending, the employment situation more »

  • Stick With Mickey D's

    By Frank Constantino - April 23, 2012 | Tickers: MCD, SBUX

    Mickey D's, as McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD) is affectionately called, has long been one of my favorite stocks.  I first started writing favorably about the company (in another forum) more than a year ago.  At that time McDonald's was trading at $74.21 per share, nearly 30% lower than Friday's closing price.  There are many attributes about the company that I like, the most of which more »

  • When Will the Robots Take Over?

    By Matthew DiLallo - April 17, 2012 | Tickers: AMZN, BBBY, IRBT, KSS

    A couple years back our vacuum cleaner went kaput and as a long time shareholder of iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT) I wanted to give their Roomba a try.  Using my shareholder discount on a refurbished model, I was able to pick one up for just over a hundred bucks.  I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth out of the little guy but its time for him to retire after more »

  • Does Planned Obsolescence Destroy Brand Loyalty?

    By Matthew DiLallo - April 12, 2012 | Tickers: AAPL, DELL, HPQ

    I absolutely love businesses with recurring revenue models, whether it be a blade-and-razor or a subscription-based model. When customers keep coming back it's certainly a recipe for financial success.  However, when a company’s business line is such that it has to keep winning new customers to maintain and grow sales, it makes it much harder to keep growing.  These businesses tend to be more cyclical with lumpier cash more »

  • The Consumer is Back!

    By David Bernstein - April 3, 2012 | Tickers: F, HNNMY.PK, JCP, UAL

    After sorting through last week’s heavy dose of economic data, there is one theme that I can positively identify and construct a theory around: The American consumer is back! 

    Slowly but surely, growth is returning to the land of the free and the home of the brave. While some choose to focus on how slow the recovery is, and overanalyze the not so perfect data, I choose to follow more »

  • McDonald's: You Just Can't Please Some People

    By Tim Brugger - March 8, 2012 | Tickers: JACK, MCD, YUM | Editor's Choice

    Apparently 7.5% global growth -- including 4% in economically depressed Europe -- in February was disappointing to a lot of analysts. Why? Because they’d expected more from industry leading McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD). Overall consensus estimates put global same-store sales expectations at 7.7% -- what a disappointment huh?

    Pre-market trading hasn’t been kind to McDonald’s, dropping about 3%. So, what should investors make of all this? Once again more »

  • Home Depot: Great Quarter But Does Upside Remain?

    By Tim Brugger - February 21, 2012 | Tickers: HD, LOW

    Home Depot’s (NYSE: HD) earnings announcement was nothing if not spectacular. Yeah, they beat analyst expectations but even more importantly the company obliterated sales, margins and earnings vs. Q4 of 2010. The result was pre-market trading ended with a 3% jump in share price. And then something interesting happened on the way to the party, investors grabbed their 1.5% or 2% and got out. Hmm.

    HD remains in more »

  • Avon’s Cheap, and for Good Reason

    By Tim Brugger - February 14, 2012 | Tickers: AVP, RDEN, NUS, EL

    Though some things have changed, too many others have stayed the same since the first write-up of Avon (NYSE: AVP) in the middle of December. At that time Avon was trading at $16.81 a share and provided shareholders with a nice 5.5% yield. The company was undervalued, had recently announced that CEO Andrea Jung was getting kicked upstairs to the boardroom and there were some gains to be more »

  • The Week that Was: Hasbro, Microsoft, Discover, and LinkedIn

    By Tim Brugger - February 13, 2012 | Tickers: DFS, HAS, LNKD, MSFT

    Even with the nearly $2 a share rise Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) investors have enjoyed since posting our original article last week, HAS remains a great value play. Not at the 12 times earnings the company was last week, but still one of the cheapest in the industry. Mattel, Hasbro’s primary competition, is trading at over 15 times earnings, which is just about right after a solid quarter and the more »

  • Hasbro is an Absolute Steal Right Now

    By Tim Brugger - February 6, 2012 | Tickers: HAS, MAT

    If you like value, and who doesn’t, Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) looks like a gift from above right now. The drop in share prices after earnings were announced has put Hasbro on sale, and this is one deal well worth looking into.

    The Numbers

    The cause of investor’s consternation this morning was the drop in Q4 earnings compared to 2010. The slim 0.06% slide comes from a couple more »