Top Consumer Stocks To Watch In The Stock Market Right Now
Like it or not, consumers are a vital element of the business world today. In fact, some of the top stocks in the stock market today would be consumer stocks because of this. Across the board, we can see that consumer-focused businesses are gaining momentum. To begin with, conventional travel and leisure companies are seeing increased booking figures. Earlier today, United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) revealed that airline ticket fares are up, reaching 2019 levels. According to UAL, this is because of the high demand for travel services as we reach the tail-end of the pandemic.
At the same time, the digital entertainment industry appears to be working hard to maintain its current pandemic-fueled momentum. Just this month, streaming industry leaders such as Fubo (NYSE: FUBO) and Discovery (NASDAQ: DISCA) continue to make strategic plays. In particular, Fubo unveiled a branded content studio for advertisers earlier this month. By doing so, the company is supposedly enhancing its addressable advertising capabilities. This move would play well with its recent acquisition of the exclusive streaming rights for the Qatar World Cup 2022 qualifying matches. Elsewhere, Discovery made headlines last week as it completed a merger with AT&T (NYSE: T). For the most part, the current deal sees two top-notch legacy names from the cable TV era bursting onto the streaming scene now.
Regardless, these are but two specific examples of the booming consumer industry now. After considering all this, some would argue that consumer stocks are among the best stocks to invest in 2021. While that remains to be seen, some of them are trading at attractive price points now given the recent inflation scares. Here are four worth noting in the stock market now.
Consumer Stocks To Buy [Or Sell] This Week
- Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)
- Upstart Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: UPST)
- Roku Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU)
- AutoZone (NYSE: AZO)
Amazon Inc.
Amazon is a multinational consumer company that is based in Seattle, Washington. The company focuses on e-commerce and digital streaming in particular. The company has been dubbed as one of the most influential companies in the world and is also one of the world’s most valuable brands. In brief, Amazon sells a wide variety of consumer goods and also provides immersive streaming content that is bundled under its Amazon Prime subscription. AMZN stock currently trades at $3,240.12 as of 11:33 a.m. ET. There is a news report by Bloomberg today that Amazon may announce an acquisition on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio as soon as today.
The acquisition could raise Amazon’s streaming profile by adding a wide selection of proprietary content to its already impressive portfolio. The deal would also be Amazon’s second-biggest acquisition after Whole Foods. In late April, the company reported solid financials for its first quarter. Net sales for the quarter increased 44% to $108.5 billion year-over-year. It also reported a net income of $8.1 billion for the quarter or $15.79 per diluted share. All things considered, will you add AMZN stock to your portfolio?
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Upstart Holdings Inc.
Next on this list is Upstart, a consumer lending company. With the company’s platform, banks can provide personal loans using non-traditional variables like education and employment to predict creditworthiness. At the same time, it helps banks reduce the risk and costs of lending. The company says that its platform uses sophisticated machine learning models to more accurately identify risk and approve more applicants than traditional credit-score-based lending models. UPST stock currently trades at $137.03 as of 11:34 a.m. ET.
Last week, the company announced that Customers Bank, a full-service community bank and subsidiary of Customers Bancorp (NYSE: CUBI) has expanded its bank partnership with Upstart. The extended partnership would include scaling its personal loan program through the Upstart Referral Network and Customers Bank’s own consumer banking website. Customers Bank’s partnership with Upstart has helped it grow its consumer installment loan portfolio over the past few years, and it expects that trend to continue.
With more predictive underwriting models and lower fraud rates delivered by the Upstart AI-based lending platform, Customers Bank’s personal loan portfolio with Upstart has performed well for the bank, while delivering a tremendous customer experience. Given this exciting piece of news, will you consider buying UPST stock?
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Roku Inc.
Roku is a consumer company that manufactures a variety of digital media players for video streaming. It essentially pioneered streaming to TV and connects users to a wide variety of streaming content. The company has also enabled content publishers to build and monetize large audiences and provide advertisers with unique capabilities to engage consumers. ROKU stock currently trades at $348.45 as of 11:34 a.m. ET and is up by over 200% in the last year.
Earlier in the month, the company reported its first-quarter financials. Roku delivered an impressive quarter with strong growth in advertising and the expansion of its content distribution partnerships. Total net revenue was $574.2 million, up by 79% year-over-year. Its platform revenue doubled year-over-year to $466.5 million. Gross profit was also up by a whopping 132% year-over-year to $326.8 million. Roku also added 2.4 million incremental active accounts in the quarter to an impressive 53.6 million. For these reasons, is ROKU stock a top consumer stock to buy?
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AutoZone
Following that, we have leading auto part retailer AutoZone. For some context, it is the largest aftermarket parts and accessories provider in the U.S. In terms of scale, the company currently operates out of 6,400 stores across the U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. Through its e-commerce services, the company continues to fulfill the needs of vehicle owners even amidst the current pandemic. More importantly, investors could be eyeing AZO stock now on account of AutoZone’s latest earnings report.
Earlier today, the company reported a blowout quarter. Specifically, it posted an earnings per share of $26.48, beating Wall Streets’ estimates of $20.14 by a landslide. Moreover, AutoZone saw its commercial business sales surge by 44% year-over-year. If that wasn’t enough, the company’s comparable-store sales skyrocketed by 28.9% over the same period, exceeding consensus estimates of 17.1%. According to CEO Bill Rhoades, this is mostly thanks to the company’s position in the DIY auto parts market. Having read all this, would you consider AZO stock a buy right now?
