For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – April 15, 2010 – 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: CarMax (KMX), AutoZone (AZO), Best Buy (BBY), Pier One (PIR) and The Gap (GPS).
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Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:
Retail Is Robust!
The U.S. consumer was quoting from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” loudly declaring that “I’m not dead yet” in March. Total retail sales rose by 1.6% in March, a sharp acceleration from the 0.5% increase in February. As the horrors of a year ago roll off, the year-over-year numbers showed and even faster acceleration, rising to 7.6% from 4.4% in February.
Much of the increase was due to strong sales by auto dealers, but even if those are stripped out the numbers still look pretty good, with a monthly increase of 0.6% on top of a 1.0% rise in February. Excluding autos, they year-over-year growth accelerated to 6.4% from 4.5%.
Auto dealers such as CarMax (KMX) and parts stores like AutoZone (AZO) saw sales increase by 6.7%, more than reversing a 1.9% drop in February. Year over year, the acceleration was striking — rising to 14.1% from 3.8% last month. But that says as much about what was happening a year ago as it does about conditions last month.
It was not just autos driving things, though. Sales were up for almost every major category of stores with the exception of gas stations, where sales fell 0.4% after a 0.2% rise in February.
These numbers are not adjusted for price changes, and recently the price at the pump has started to increase again, so sales as gas stations should be up sharply when the April numbers are released. Clearly the weak numbers for March are only a temporary respite. Year over year, gas station sales are up 26.4% — an acceleration from the 24.0% year-over-year rise February. Clearly that is all about the price of a gallon of gas, not because Americans are all of a sudden drinking that many more 40-ounce sodas and hot dogs off the rollers.
The other type of store to post a decline was electronics stores such as Best Buy (BBY) where sales fell 1.3%, but that comes after a very strong 3.1% rise in February. Even with the drop for the month, year-over-year sales accelerated to a gain of 3.5% from a decline of 2.2% in February.
Some of the best gains came from some of the more discretionary types of stores. Furniture stores like Pier One (PIR) saw sales rise 1.5% in March on top of a 2.0% rise in February, causing the year-over-year growth to rise to 4.3% from 0.3%. Sporting goods, hobby and book stores saw a 1.0% increase on the month, matching the rise in February, with the year over year numbers rising to 6.3% from 3.3%.
Keep in mind that a 1.0% (1.01^12= 1.1268) increase for a month would mean a 12.7% increase for the year if it were sustained for 12 months.
Clothing stores, such as The Gap (GPS) posted an increase of 2.3% on the month, on top of a 1.1% increase in February, wit the year-over-year numbers rising to 5.7% from 0.2% last month.
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