The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Amazon.com, Target And Walmart

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 16, 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: Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) , Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) and Walmart Inc. (NYSE:WMT) .

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

Prime Day Sale Kicks Off: Here Are the Big Winners

This year, Amazon.com, Inc.’s Prime Day, the annual shopping holiday, starts on Jul 15 and the deals are expected to last up to 36 hours. Market pundits expect the company’s sales to be the highest-ever this time.

Most analysts believe that sales will increase between 14% and 25% compared to last year. But, J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth clearly said that Prime Day sales could hit $5 billion, a whopping 56% rise from $3.2 billion recorded last year. Camilla Yanushevsky of CFRA Research chipped in and said that this Prime Day is expected to be the “biggest shopping event in Amazon's history, surpassing Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the previous Prime Day.”

With Prime Day sales expected to boost Amazon’s revenues, its share price is likely to climb north. The company’s expected earnings growth for the current year, in fact, is 31.8% compared with the Internet - Commerce industry’s projected decline of 2.2%

But, Prime Day is more than just about revenue growth. This clearly shows that Prime Day subscribers spend way more than non-Prime customers. Per year, on average, Prime subscribers have spent $1,400, while non-Prime customers have shelled out $600. Thus, Amazon Prime Day is a reason to celebrate for Amazon’s shareholders. To top it, Amazon is benefitting from its delivery and logistic system, and dominance in the cloud market space.

Prime Day to Boost Consumer Stocks

Thanks to Amazon’s record-breaking event, the broader consumer industry is set to gain. And why not? Take a look at the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY). It could easily get another boost from the Amazon Prime Day after recently hitting a new 52-week high, according to CFRA. After all, Amazon constitutes more than 23% of the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund’s portfolio.

The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund, as a whole, has gained more than 23% so far this year and 5% in the last one-month period. What’s more, the fund flaunts a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Who Else Can Make the Most of the Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day kicks off the back-to-school shopping season. Data from RetailMeNot showed that more than 80% of retailers consider the Amazon Prime Day period to be the most important time of the back-to-school season.

Michelle Skupin, RetailMeNot’s senior director of marketing and communications, added that “with the back-to-school shopping season starting with Prime Day, all retailers have an opportunity to capture early sales by participating in Prime-related promotions.”

In fact, it is expected that more than two-thirds of shoppers during Amazon Prime Day period will head to other retailers. On average, shoppers are expected to visit at least 11 retailers throughout the Prime Day period. Data from marketing intelligence company MiQ showed that shoppers will visit stores on average 16 times to buy back-to-school items between July and September.

And shoppers are expected to spend an average $507 for the entire back-to-school summer period, more than $465 last year. Retail behemoths Target Corporation and Walmart Inc. are already offering deals and additional discounts to attract customers.

Target, in particular, is launching its “Target Deal Days” on Prime Day period which offers shoppers pick-up and same-day delivery options. At the same time, Walmart will be offering “thousands” of discounts between Jul 14 and Jul 17 on the Walmart.com site. Thus, both the companies are well poised to benefit from this Amazon Prime Day sales period. Needless to say, both possess a Zacks Rank #2.

And when it comes to Target, Goldman analyst Kate McShane believes that the company has a better a chance to outperform this shopping season, banking on its resources, size and market share, to name a few. Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) analyst Robert Ohmes added that Target will be a big winner from the “discount store cycle that we expect will play out over the next five to 10 years.”

Wall Street’s Next Amazon

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