The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Insight Enterprises, Zumiez, Boot Barn, Genesco And Sonic Automotive
Zacks Investment Research | Dec 29, 2019 08:46PM ET
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – December 30, 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: Insight Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSIT) , Zumiez Inc. (NASDAQ:ZUMZ) , Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BOOT) , Genesco Inc. (NYSE:GCO) and Sonic Automotive, Inc. (NYSE:SAH) .
Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:
U.S. Retail Sales Soar in Holiday Season: 5 Top Picks
This year, the holiday season has been the shortest. Yet the Mastercard (NYSE:MA) SpendingPulse holiday season report showed that retail sales still hit record highs. And it’s mostly because of Americans being confident about their well-being.
Retail Sales Hit Record High
According to Mastercard SpendingPulse, retail sales in the United States from Nov 1 to Dec 24 rose 3.4% from the comparable year-ago period. The Mastercard SpendingPulse survey tracks spending online and in traditional stores, via all types of payments ranging from cash to credit, excluding sales of automobiles.
Additionally, this year, the Saturday before the Christmas was one of the busiest shopping days in America’s history and evidently surpassed Black Friday sales, per a Customer Growth Partners research report.
In fact, as per Census Bureau report retail sales for the first 11 months of this year grew modestly. But it was non-store retailers that registered a healthy 12.1% increase in sales. Nonetheless, through November, sales across non-discretionary segments like food and beverage stores, and health and personal care stores rose 3.1% and 2.9%, respectively.
E-Commerce Sales Steal the Show
E-commerce was the best performer in retail sales, growing at a faster pace, rising 18.8% from last year and making nearly 15% of the total retail sales. Specialty stores and especially Amazon drew customers’ attention away from department stores by offering steep discounts and one-day shipping facility.
Mastercard’s research shows, sales of electronics goods were the highest, rising 4.6% year over the previous year, with online sales generating a whopping 10.7%. However, online sales topped in the specialty apparel segment, with sales jumping 17% in the period last year. A steep rise in online jewelry sales was also seen as the segment generated 8.8% and grew 1.8% overall from the previous year.
As per reports from Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN), one-day delivery was a hit and comparatively more people tried out the $119-a-year Prime membership than any other year. The e-commerce giant gained more than 5 million new customers in a single week as they could avail faster shipping and free movie streaming facility.
What Drove the Rise in Sales?
Evidently, this year, consumers have been the driving force behind the U.S. economy’s growth. A 50-year low unemployment rate and steady wage gains have kept American households healthy and the shopping spree alive.
In fact, personal income rose 0.5% in November beating the consensus estimate of 0.3%. Moreover, November’s income growth was the strongest since August. The rise in income could be visible from 266,000 job additions in November, which is the highest since January.
5 Retail Stocks to Buy
According to C. Britt Beemer, chief executive of the consumer behavior firm America’s Research Group, retailers are trying to make the most by offering steep discounts “through at least New Year’s Day in hopes of snaring those who did not get all they had hoped for” in the shortened holiday shopping season. With this we can hope that the already boosted retail space will be soaring in the near term as well. Hence, we have shortlisted five stocks that flaunt a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see Zacks Investment Research
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