With shares of Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) trading around $16, is the stock an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let�� analyze it with the relevant sections of our Cheat Sheet investing framework:
T = Trends for a Stock’s MovementBarnes & Noble�is a content, commerce, and technology book-selling company that provides customers access to books, magazines, newspapers, and other content across its multi-channel distribution platform. The company operates 1,338 bookstores in 50 states, 647 bookstores on college campuses, one e-commerce site, and develops digital content products and software. Barnes & Noble operates in three segments: B&N Retail, B&N College and Nook. As the last nationwide bookseller, Barnes & Noble may be preparing to close its doors — the company has struggled to compete with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).�Its founder, Leonard Riggio, suggested that the company may be able to survive if it splits its digital businesses from its physical stores.
Hot Healthcare Technology Companies To Watch In Right Now: Target Corporation(TGT)
Target Corporation operates general merchandise stores in the United States. The company offers household essentials, including pharmacy, beauty, personal care, baby care, cleaning, and paper products; hardlines comprising music, movies, books, computer software, sporting goods, and toys, as well as electronics that comprise video game hardware and software; apparel and accessories consisting of apparel for women, men, boys, girls, toddlers, infants, and newborns; and intimate apparel, jewelry, accessories, and shoes. It also provides food and pet supplies, including dry grocery, dairy, frozen food, beverages, candy, snacks, deli, bakery, meat, produce, and pet supplies; and home furnishings and d�or, such as furniture, lighting, kitchenware, small appliances, home d�or, bed and bath, home improvement, and automotive products, as well as seasonal merchandise, which include patio furniture and holiday d�or. The company sells its merchandise products under private-labe l and exclusive licensed brands. In addition, it provides in-store amenities. As of January 28, 2012, Target Corporation operated 1,763 stores in 49 states and the District of Columbia under Target and SuperTarget names. Further, it offers general merchandise through its Website, Target.com. The company distributes its merchandise through a network of distribution centers, as well as third parties and direct shipping from vendors. Additionally, it offers credit to guests through its branded proprietary credit cards, the Target Visa Credit Card and the Target Credit Card, as well as through its branded proprietary Target Debit Card. Target Corporation was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Steve Symington]
Congratulations,�Target (NYSE: TGT ) shareholders! Your company just gave you a 19% raise.
More specifically, the company's board of directors last week declared a quarterly dividend of $0.43 per share of Target stock, representing a 19.4% increase from the previous quarterly dividend of $0.36. In addition, the folks at Target were happy to point out that this quarter's payout will mark the company's 184th consecutive dividend since it went public in October 1967. What's more, this is the 42nd time during those 46 years that Target stock has raised its dividend for patient investors.
- [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images | After the data breach heard 'round the world hit Target (TGT) last year, will shoppers behave any differently this Christmas? According to a new study by Deloitte, although 42 percent of consumers said they are concerned about their personal data when making in-store purchases, 56 percent will still shop this holiday at retailers that have experienced a data breach. The research follows similar finding in a report from CreditCards.com released earlier this month, which found that 52 percent of major credit and debit card holders either "probably" or "definitely" would shop at a store where shoppers' personal information had been exposed. That's good news for retailers including Target, Home Depot (HD), Kmart (SHLD) and Michaels (MIK), all of which have fallen victim to a data breach over the past year. "The consumer's now somewhat desensitized [to breaches]," said Rod Sides, principal at Deloitte Consulting. This is particularly true among higher-income households, according to the CreditCards.com report. It found that only 31 percent of households earning $75,000 or more annually said they were likely to avoid affected stores, compared with 56 percent of those with an annual income of less than $30,000. Breaches are also more likely to weigh on older shoppers, a study by The National Retail Federation found. "The younger you are, the more likely you were to grow up with technology, so it's part of your world," said Pam Goodfellow, principal analyst at Prosper Insights & Analytics, which conducted NRF's holiday spending survey. The biggest shift, Sides predicted, is likely to come from consumers' method of payment. Backing up that theory, NRF's study found that about one-fifth of shoppers are "somewhat" or "very likely" to let the breaches affect how they shop or pay for merchandise. More Gifts Under the Tree With consumers starting to feel more optimistic about the economy, Deloitte's survey, which
Top 5 Retail Companies To Own In Right Now: AutoCanada Inc (ACQ)
AutoCanada Inc. (AutoCanada) is a multi-location automobile dealership groups. As of December 31, 2011, the Company operated 24 franchised dealerships in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. During the year ended December 31, 2011, its dealerships sold approximately 28,000 vehicles and processed approximately 300,000 service and collision repair orders in its 333 service bays. As of December 31, 2011, it was authorized to sell through its dealerships the vehicle brands, which include Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Fiat, Hyundai, Nissan, Infiniti, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi and Subaru. In addition, it sells a range of used vehicles. In November 2011, the Company acquired assets of two dealerships. In January 2013, the Company purchased the assets of a Volkswagen dealership known as People's Automotive Ltd. Advisors' Opinion:- [By Greg Quinn]
AutoCanada Inc. (ACQ), the country�� largest publicly traded chain of car dealerships, is using sales of trucks to Alberta oil workers to fund higher dividends and buy out competitors.
Top 5 Retail Companies To Own In Right Now: L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL)
L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, L-3 Communications Corporation, provides command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C3ISR) systems; aircraft modernization and maintenance; and government services in the United States and internationally. Its C3ISR segment offers fleet management sustainment and support, such as procurement, systems integration, sensor development, modifications, and periodic depot maintenance for signals intelligence and communications intelligence systems; strategic and tactical signals intelligence systems; secure data links; secure terminal and communication network equipment and encryption management; and communication systems. The company?s Government Services segment provides communication software support, information technology services, and various engineering development services and integration support; engineering and information systems support services; teaching and training; h uman intelligence support services; command and control systems and software services; and technical and management services. Its Aircraft Modernization and Maintenance segment offers modernization and refurbishments, upgrades and sustainment, maintenance, and logistics support services, as well as turnkey aviation life cycle management services for military and various government and commercial customers. The company?s Electronic Systems segment provides components, products, subsystems, systems, and related services across various business areas, including power and control systems, electro-optic/infrared, microwave, simulation and training, precision engagement, warrior systems, security and detection, propulsion systems, avionics and displays, telemetry and advanced technology, undersea warfare, and marine services. L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is based in New York, New York.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Rich Smith]
Defense contractor L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL ) enjoyed a banner year for its stock in 2013, gaining 39% in 12 months of trading. But heading into its Thursday earnings report, things were looking pretty bleak for the company. Earnings for the year were expected to be only $8.30 or thereabouts, less than a 4% increase over 2012 levels, and probably too little growth to support the stock's 13-times earnings P/E ratio. But then the numbers came out, and a miracle happened:
Top 5 Retail Companies To Own In Right Now: Groupon Inc (GRPN)
Groupon, Inc. (Groupon) is a local e-commerce marketplace that connects merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount. Each day the Company e-mails its subscribers discounted offers for goods and services that are targeted by location and personal preferences. Consumers also access its deals directly through its Websites and mobile applications. The Company operates in two segments: North America, which represents the United States and Canada; and International, which represents the rest of its global operations. Customers purchase Groupons from the Company and redeem them with its merchants. As of September 30, 2011, the Company featured deals from over 190,000 merchants worldwide across over 190 categories of goods and services. Groupon primarily addresses the worldwide local commerce markets in the leisure, recreation, foodservice and retail sectors. In February 2012, the Company announced the launch of Groupon Thailand. In September 2012, it acquired Savored.
In May 2010, the Company acquired CityDeal Europe GmbH (CityDeal). In August 2010, the Company acquired Qpod.inc (Qpod). In November 2010, the Company acquired Ludic Labs, Inc., a company that designs and develops local marketing services. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company acquired Mobly, Inc. In February 2011, the Company launched Deal Channels, which aggregates daily deals from the same category.
The Company distributes a featured daily deal by e-mail on behalf of local merchants to subscribers. It offers daily deals from more than 40 national merchants, including Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, Hyatt Regency, InterContinental Hotels, Lions Gate, Redbox, Shutterfly and Zipcar across subsets of the North American market. Daily deals that do not appear as a featured daily deal appear as Deals Nearby. Each Deal Nearby is summarized in fewer than 20 words next to the featured daily deal. Deals Nearby often extends beyond the subscriber's closest market or buying preferences.
National merchants also have used the Company�� marketplace as an alternative to traditional marketing and brand advertising. On August 19, 2010, the Company e-mailed and posted a Groupon daily deal offering $50 of apparel at Gap for $25 to 9.2 million subscribers across 85 markets in North America. It sold approximately 433,000 Groupons in 24 hours. Of the consumers who purchased Groupons, approximately 200,000 were new subscribers. As of September 30, 2011, it had 142.9 million subscribers to its daily e-mails.
Groupon NOW is a deal initiated by a merchant on demand and offered instantly to subscribers through mobile devices and its Website. Subsequent to the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company launched Groupon NOW in 25 North American markets. Deal Channels aggregate daily deals from the same category and are accessible through its Website and through e-mail alerts that subscribers sign up to receive. It offers Deal Channels in home and garden and event tickets and travel. Merchants can register their deals to be included in a Deal Channel. Subscribers can use Deal Channels to focus on deals that are of interest to them.
Self-Service Deals allows the Company�� merchants to use a self-service platform to create and launch deals at their discretion. The use of the platform is free and allows merchants to establish a permanent e-commerce presence on Groupon that can be visited and followed by subscribers. The Company receives a portion of the purchase price from deals sold through Self-Service Deals based on the extent to which it marketed the deal. In December 2010, it launched Self-Service Deals in selected North American markets.
Groupon Goods enables consumers to purchase vouchers for products directly from its Website. The Company e-mails deals for Groupon Goods weekly to a targeted subscriber base. The Company offers deals for a variety of product categories, including electronics, home and garden and toys. In September 2011, the Compa! ny launch! ed Groupon Goods in select North American and International markets.
Groupon Rewards enables consumers to unlock special Groupon deals from local merchants through repeat visits. Consumers earn reward points at participating merchants by paying with the credit or debit card they have registered with the Company. Merchants set the amount the consumer must spend to unlock a reward deal, and once a consumer is eligible to unlock a deal, it automatically notifies them. The Company distributes its deals directly through several platforms: a daily e-mail, its Websites, its mobile applications and social networks.
In December 2010, the Company partnered with Redbox to offer a daily deal to their user base and it acquired over 200,000 new customers through that offer and in March 2011, it partnered with eBay to offer a daily deal to their user base and it acquired over 290,000 new customers through that offer. The featured daily deal e-mail contains one headline deal with a full-description of the deal and often contains links to More Great Deals Nearby, all of which are available within a subscriber's market.
Visitors are prompted to register as a subscriber when they first visit its Website and thereafter use the Website as a portal for featured daily deals, Deals Nearby, national deals, and where available, Deal Channels and Self-Service Deals. Consumers also access the Company�� deals through its mobile applications, which are available on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile operating systems. It launched its first mobile application in March 2010. The Company publishes its daily deals through various social networks and its notifications are adapted to the particular format of each of these social networking platforms.
Groupon competes with Google, Microsoft, Eversave, BuyWithMe and LivingSocial.
Advisors' Opinion:- [By Benjamin Pimentel]
The tech sector also got a boost from other Internet and social media stocks. Groupon (GRPN) �added 6.1% to close at $5.66, while LinkedIn (LNKD) � gained 1.2% to close at $145.07. But Facebook turned negative, falling 1.1% to close at $56.76.
- [By Dan Caplinger]
But the key to payment processing's future remains the mobile market, and there, VeriFone faces huge competition. eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY ) PayPal has consistently upped the ante in mobile payments, with incentives like offering transaction-fee-free processing for businesses that replace cash registers with iPad-based transaction management. With smaller companies like Square and Flint having emerged in the mobile space, it's likely only a matter of time before bigger companies acquire the upstarts to move their mobile-payment presence forward. For instance, if Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN ) is serious about trying to make waves in mobile payments, purchasing Square would be a natural fit for the company.
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