The significant decline of retail stocks has impacted many well-known clothing stores including J.C. Penney, GAP, Nordstrom, and Macy’s, which reported a 40% loss of net income in the last quarter and a 7.4% decline in revenue.
As these stocks seem to be drowning in the wave of retail demise, discount retailers remain buoyant. Specifically, Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT), and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) have experienced peak interest from consumers, entertaining the idea that perhaps consumers are being driven by cost effectiveness as opposed to luxury. Could frugality be the culprit at hand for these plummeting retail stocks?
Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon has been one of the most promising and best-performing stocks in recent memory, nearly doubling its market value. The e-commerce giant continued to beat expectations in its recently posted 1Q earning report released April 28, 2016. While the analyst consensus for EPS was $0.58, Amazon released EPS of $1.07. Revenue was expected to be $27.99 billion, but the company beat consensus yet again with $29.1 billion in revenue, up 28% year-over-year.
It seems as though analysts have been exceedingly bullish on Amazon, and KeyBanc analyst Edward Yruma is no exception. Yruma reiterated a Buy rating on Amazon on May 16, 2016 with a price target of $800. Yruma explained Amazon’s private-label brand, expected to launch soon, will be very beneficial for company success. In addition, the analyst also points out that Amazon can “utilize reviews along with customer surveys to inform product development of private label food or household product offerings.”
Other analysts have pointed out that Amazon is estimated to grow from $16 billion in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in 2015 to $52 billion GMV 2020, implying a 9% gain in U.S. Apparel & Accessories market. This is quite an ambitious forecast, but considering the renowned success of the stock, the estimate seems reasonable.
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