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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Boot Barn, Chuy's, Best Buy, Burlington Stores and Casey's

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL –August 19, 2019 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Boot Barn Holdings Inc. (BOOT - Free Report) , Chuy's Holdings Inc. (CHUY - Free Report) , Best Buy Co.Inc. (BBY - Free Report) , Burlington Stores Inc. (BURL - Free Report) and Casey's General Stores Inc. (CASY - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

Strong Consumer Spending Allays Yield Curve Fears: 5 Picks

A series of reports on the U.S. economy released on Aug 15 diminish chances of a recession in the near term. The previous day, Wall Street routed after the bond market signaled at an impending recession after inversion of the main treasury yield curve. Meanwhile, reports of robust consumer-centric data and mixed data in the business front bolstered market participant’s confidence to some extent.

Notably, consumer spending constitutes around 70% of the U.S. GDP while business spending generates nearly 12%. Therefore, strong consumer spending indicates that the U.S. economy, which is currently in its record 11th year of expansion, will maintain momentum.

Robust Consumer-Centric Data

On Aug 15, the Department of Commerce reported a 0.7% jump in retail sales in July compared with 0.3% in June and the consensus estimate of 0.2%. Online retailers, grocery stores, clothing retailers, restaurants and electronics and appliance stores witnessed sold gains. Notably, online retail sales rose 2.8%.

Moreover, core retail sales (excluding sales at auto dealers and gasoline stations) increased 1% in July, surpassing June’s rise of 0.3% and the consensus estimate of 0.4%.

On Jul 31, the Conference Board's measure of consumer confidence index for July skyrocketed to 135.7 compared with 124.3 in June. In addition, a healthy labor market with 164,000 job additions in July, and a 50-year low unemployment rate of 3.7% boosted consumer confidence.     

Meanwhile, on Aug 15, the Department of Labor reported that U.S. productivity (output per hour work) increased 2.3% in the second quarter of 2019. While the figure lagged the first quarter’s increase of 3.5%, it surpassed the consensus estimate of growth of 1.5%. Higher productivity will enable producers to raise workers’ pay without hiking the price of finished products. Consequently, higher wage will benefit workers raising their level of living.  

Furthermore, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), which measures builder confidence for single-family homes, increased by 1 point to 66 in August from July. The increase in builder’s confidence is mainly due to the drop of the 30-year mortgage rate to 3.6% from 4.1% over the past four months.

Mixed Business Data

The Federal Reserve reported that industrial production in July fell 0.2% against a gain of 0.2% in June. The consensus estimate was for a gain of 0.1%. The metric declined in two out of the past four months. Year over year, industrial production grew just 0.5%. Moreover, capacity utilization declined to 77.5% in July from 77.8% in June, reflecting the lowest rate since October 2017.

However, the New York Empire State Manufacturing Index increased to a reading of 4.8 in August from 4.3 in July. Notably, 42.6% respondents were expecting strong business prospects while 16.9% anticipated weakness.

Similarly, the Philadelphia business conditions index read 16.8 for August. Although the index fell below July’s metric of 21.8, the sub-index for new orders increased by 7 points. Moreover, the metrics for unfilled orders and delivery times were in the positive territory, marking a solid pace of business activity.

Our Top Picks

At this stage, we have narrowed down our search to five retail stocks with either a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Moreover, these stocks performed better than the broader market in the past six months and still have some upside left.

Boot Barn Holdings Inc.is a lifestyle retail chain, which operates specialty retail stores in the United States. Its specialty retail stores offer western and work-related footwear, apparel, and accessories for men, women, and kids. It sports a Zacks Rank #1.

The company has expected earnings growth of 20.7% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has moved 7.9% north over the last 60 days. The stock has gained 5.2% in the past six months.

Chuy's Holdings Inc. owns and operates full-service restaurants serving a distinct menu of authentic Mexican food in the United States. It sports a Zacks Rank #1.

The company has expected earnings growth of 8% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has risen 3.3% over the last 60 days. The stock has climbed 9.1% in the past six months.

Best Buy Co. Inc. operates as a retailer of technology products, services, and solutions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company operates through two segments, Domestic and International. It carries a Zacks Rank #2.

The company has expected earnings growth of 8.1% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has climbed 0.3% over the last 60 days. The stock has rallied 6.2% in the past six months.

Burlington Stores Inc. operates as a retailer of branded apparel products in the United States. It offers women's ready-to-wear apparel, accessories, footwear, menswear, youth apparel, coats, toys, and gifts, as well as baby, home and beauty products. It carries a Zacks Rank #2.

The company has expected earnings growth of 8.9% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has risen 0.1% over the last 60 days. The stock has gained 3.5% in the past six months.

Casey's General Stores Inc. operates convenience stores under the names Casey's and Casey's General Store. It also operates two stores under the name Tobacco City, selling primarily tobacco products, and one grocery store. It carries a Zacks Rank #2.

The company has expected earnings growth of 6.9% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has risen 1.7% over the last 60 days. The stock has jumped 23.1% in the past six months.

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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/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.

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