For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – November 29, 2016 – 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 Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) (NASDAQ:AAPL –Free Report),Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) (NASDAQ:AMZN –Free Report) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) (NASDAQ:FB – Free Report).
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.
Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:
Tech Stock Roundup: AAPL, AMZN, FB Jump on Thanksgiving Traffic
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL –Free Report) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report) shares were most rewarding in Thanksgiving week as shoppers opened their wallets, but Facebook (NASDAQ:FB – Free Report) also jumped on news of its first share buyback plan.
Thanksgiving Again
The biggest shopping weekend of the year just happened and a ton of data has started pouring in, setting aside fears of weaker consumer spending and confirming that this year will be much bigger than the last.
Adobe Digital Insights, the National Retail Federation (NRF) and some retailers have started sharing encouraging sales numbers.
According to Adobe, more than $5 billion was spent online, with Black Friday sales topping $3 billion for the first time, up 21.6% from 2015. Thanksgiving sales were 11.5% higher. Mobile accounted for 57% of visits and 40% of sales on Thanksgiving Day and for the first time, accounted for more than a billion dollars in sales on Black Friday, up 33%. Shopper helper sites, email, displays, etc helped drive traffic this year with search ads and direct traffic contributing less than last year but remaining by far the largest drivers.
The five top selling toys were Lego Creator Sets, electric scooters from Razor, Nerf Guns, DJI Phantom Drones and Barbie Dreamhouse. The five top selling electronic products on Black Friday were Apple iPads, Samsung (KS:005930) 4k TVs, Apple MacBook Air, LG TVs and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Xbox. Adobe collected anonymous data from 22.6 billion visits to retail websites and measured 80% of all online transactions from the top 100 U.S. retailers.
According to the annual Thanksgiving weekend results survey released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics, average spending per person totaled $289.19, down slightly from $299.60 in 2015. Around 74% of spending was on gifts. Online shopping was slightly more popular than in-store with 44% of respondents going online and 40% shopping in-store. 36% shopped online on Thanksgiving Day (36% shopped in-store), 74% on Black Friday(75% in-store), 49% on Saturday (40% in-store) and 34% on Sunday (17% in-store). So it’s apparent that many shopped both online and in-store and probably also made use of omni-channel facilities.
Significantly, only 9% of shoppers have completed holiday shopping. 80% of millennials shopped during the weekend, underscoring the importance of the demographic to retailers. According to the survey, 56% of smartphone owners and 53% of tablet owners used their devices. The most popular gifts were clothing or clothing accessories, toys, electronics, books, CDs, DVDs, videos or video games and gift cards.
Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1 Stock of the Day pick for free.
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APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
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FACEBOOK INC-A (FB): Free Stock Analysis Report
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