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Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: Macy's, J. C. Penney, Target and Gap.
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For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – October 30, 2017 – Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Retail, including Macy’s, Inc. (M - Free Report) , J. C. Penney Company, Inc. , Target Corporation (TGT - Free Report) and The Gap, Inc. (GPS - Free Report) .
The story narrating the retail sector’s transformation is now old. What is coming up is the holiday shopping season, the key yearly event for retailers. This money-making period brings with it a lot of enthusiasm as Christmas and Thanksgiving provide ample opportunities for retailers to make up for lost profits during the year.
The holiday season, which accounts for a sizable chunk of yearly revenues and profits for retailers, generally extends from Thanksgiving to Christmas, also including the Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. This season can represent as much as 30% of annual sales for some retailers. Last year, holiday season accounted for nearly 20% of overall retail industry sales.
Coming to the forecasts for this year’s holiday season, analysts remain optimistic on grounds of gradual wage growth, lower inflation, 16-year low unemployment rate, an uptick in the U.S. consumer sentiment to a 13-year high and a lift in economic activity post-hurricanes. Characterized by the aforementioned improvement in the consumer backdrop, alongside early-hour store openings, huge discounts, promotional strategies, price matching and free shipping on online purchases, the holiday season this November and December is likely to be a huge success.
The nation's largest retail trade group, National Retail Federation (“NRF”) rightly projects retail sales for November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales) to improve 3.6-4% to $678.75-$682 billion, up from $655.8 billion (or 3.6% growth) last year and better than the five-year average sales growth of 3.5%. Additionally, the NRF projects online holiday sales to rise 7-10% to nearly $117 billion in November and December compared with a 9% improvement to $105 billion in 2015.
Apart from the strong consumer confidence, the NRF predicts sales for the period to benefit from a longer holiday season as Christmas is falling on Monday this year and 32 days after Thanksgiving. This will give retailers one extra day of sales than normal, as well as benefit last-minute shoppers in the weekend before Christmas.
Moreover, Deloitte projects holiday season sales to go up as much as 4.5%, while e-commerce sales are envisioned to improve 18-21%. The data compiled by Kantar suggests that the fourth-quarter holiday period sales are expected to jump 3.7%. Further, eMarketer forecasts holiday sales (November and December) to increase 3.1% to $923.15 billion, while retail e-commerce holiday season sales are anticipated to rise 16.6%.
Further, with considerable growth in retail employment in recent months, the NRF expects to witness lesser seasonal hiring for this year’s holiday bash. It expects retailers to employ nearly 500,000-550,000 seasonal workers this year, a decline from last year’s 575,000 hiring.
In this context, retailers including Macy’s, Inc., J. C. Penney Company, Inc., Target Corporation and The Gap, Inc. have already put forward their hiring plans for the upcoming holiday season to cater to the holiday rush. Per media reports, Target intends to employ 100,000 associates, while Macy's will hire nearly 80,000 seasonal workers. Meanwhile, Gap is deploying seasonal associates at all stores including Gap, Gap Outlet, Banana Republic, Banana Republic Factory and Old Navy across the United States and Canada. J. C. Penney will hire nearly 40,000 seasonal workers.
Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News
Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has more than doubles the market from 1988 through 2016. Its average gain has been a stellar +25% per year.See these high-potential stocks free >>.
Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit http://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
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Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: Macy's, J. C. Penney, Target and Gap.
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – October 30, 2017 – Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Retail, including Macy’s, Inc. (M - Free Report) , J. C. Penney Company, Inc. , Target Corporation (TGT - Free Report) and The Gap, Inc. (GPS - Free Report) .
Industry: Retail, Part 2
Link: https://www.zacks.com/commentary/134138/holiday-fervor-long-term-trends-show-opportune-retail-sector
The story narrating the retail sector’s transformation is now old. What is coming up is the holiday shopping season, the key yearly event for retailers. This money-making period brings with it a lot of enthusiasm as Christmas and Thanksgiving provide ample opportunities for retailers to make up for lost profits during the year.
The holiday season, which accounts for a sizable chunk of yearly revenues and profits for retailers, generally extends from Thanksgiving to Christmas, also including the Black Friday and Cyber Monday events. This season can represent as much as 30% of annual sales for some retailers. Last year, holiday season accounted for nearly 20% of overall retail industry sales.
Coming to the forecasts for this year’s holiday season, analysts remain optimistic on grounds of gradual wage growth, lower inflation, 16-year low unemployment rate, an uptick in the U.S. consumer sentiment to a 13-year high and a lift in economic activity post-hurricanes. Characterized by the aforementioned improvement in the consumer backdrop, alongside early-hour store openings, huge discounts, promotional strategies, price matching and free shipping on online purchases, the holiday season this November and December is likely to be a huge success.
The nation's largest retail trade group, National Retail Federation (“NRF”) rightly projects retail sales for November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales) to improve 3.6-4% to $678.75-$682 billion, up from $655.8 billion (or 3.6% growth) last year and better than the five-year average sales growth of 3.5%. Additionally, the NRF projects online holiday sales to rise 7-10% to nearly $117 billion in November and December compared with a 9% improvement to $105 billion in 2015.
Apart from the strong consumer confidence, the NRF predicts sales for the period to benefit from a longer holiday season as Christmas is falling on Monday this year and 32 days after Thanksgiving. This will give retailers one extra day of sales than normal, as well as benefit last-minute shoppers in the weekend before Christmas.
Moreover, Deloitte projects holiday season sales to go up as much as 4.5%, while e-commerce sales are envisioned to improve 18-21%. The data compiled by Kantar suggests that the fourth-quarter holiday period sales are expected to jump 3.7%. Further, eMarketer forecasts holiday sales (November and December) to increase 3.1% to $923.15 billion, while retail e-commerce holiday season sales are anticipated to rise 16.6%.
Further, with considerable growth in retail employment in recent months, the NRF expects to witness lesser seasonal hiring for this year’s holiday bash. It expects retailers to employ nearly 500,000-550,000 seasonal workers this year, a decline from last year’s 575,000 hiring.
In this context, retailers including Macy’s, Inc., J. C. Penney Company, Inc., Target Corporation and The Gap, Inc. have already put forward their hiring plans for the upcoming holiday season to cater to the holiday rush. Per media reports, Target intends to employ 100,000 associates, while Macy's will hire nearly 80,000 seasonal workers. Meanwhile, Gap is deploying seasonal associates at all stores including Gap, Gap Outlet, Banana Republic, Banana Republic Factory and Old Navy across the United States and Canada. J. C. Penney will hire nearly 40,000 seasonal workers.
Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News
Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has more than doubles the market from 1988 through 2016. Its average gain has been a stellar +25% per year.See these high-potential stocks free >>.
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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit http://www.zacks.com/performancefor information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.