Are These Top Retail Stocks On Your July 2022 Watchlist?
Retail stocks would be in an interesting position in the stock market today. Overall, as investors continue to digest the latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes, stocks are on the rise. Accordingly, this is also the same for retail stocks today. While some would argue that the gains in stocks now would be part of market volatility, investors may not want to discount retail stocks just yet. Why? Well, for one thing, the industry continues to cater to consumers across the board.
While general consumer spending may not be at optimal levels, retailers remain hard at work expanding their offerings. Take Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) for example. Just this week, the company made two updates to its Amazon Prime subscription program. For starters, the company’s streaming service, Prime Video now supports Amazon’s Watch Party feature across more devices. This ranges from smart TVs to Roku’s (NASDAQ: ROKU) streaming devices. Secondly, as of yesterday, Amazon is now offering a one-year Grubhub+ food-delivery subscription for Prime members as well. This would be a commendable move by the firm as it is essentially offering more value for its service.
At the same time, retailers like GameStop (NYSE: GME) continue to make waves in the stock market now as well. Following the announcement of a 4-for-1 stock split, GME stock is once again receiving plenty of attention from retail traders. All in all, there appears to be no shortage of excitement in the retail space now. With this in mind, here are three more retail stocks to check out today.
Retail Stocks To Buy [Or Sell] Today
- Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT)
- JD.com Inc. (NASDAQ: JD)
- Home Depot Inc. (NYSE: HD)
Walmart Inc.
Starting us off today, we have Walmart, a multinational retail corporation with its chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. Today, it has over 10,000 stores and clubs under 46 banners in 24 countries. Despite being one of the largest brick-and-mortar retailers in the world, the company is also one of the fastest-growing and most dynamic e-commerce organizations. Notably, its main website, Walmart.com sees up to 100 million unique visitors each month.
Recently, the company is planning to introduce additional logistics fees for suppliers. Starting in August, Walmart will begin implementing a collect pickup charge from a percentage of the cost of goods and the cost of fuel in transporting those goods. This could be a strategic move for the company as fuel and labor costs rise. This would be in line with comments from CEO Doug McMillon during Walmart’s latest quarterly earnings release back in May. According to McMillon, the company will focus on adjusting its operations to balance profit growth and consumer prices.
It also announced on Wednesday that Walmart’s popular InHome Delivery Service, which delivers groceries straight to a consumer’s fridge, is now available as an optional add-on within Walmart+. By combining two standalone memberships, Walmart can now bring delivery capabilities into a single, streamlined experience. This would allow members, both old and new to choose the membership plan that appeals to them the most. Members of Walmart+’s $12.95 a month/$98 a year program can now add unlimited fee-free and tip-free InHome delivery for an extra $7 a month or $40 per year. All things considered, is WMT stock a buy right now?
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JD.com Inc.
JD.com is a leading retailer and e-commerce company. It is also a leading supply chain-based technology and service provider. With its cutting-edge retail infrastructure, the company enables consumers to buy whatever they want, wherever they want. On June 29, 2022, the company announced an exciting piece of news.
Diving in, JD.com says that it has renewed its strategic cooperation with Tencent for a period of three years. Tencent will continue to offer the company prominent Level I and Level II access points on its Weixin platform to provide traffic support, and the two parties also intend to continue to cooperate in a number of areas including communications, technology services, marketing, and advertising, and membership services, among others.
In May, JD.com also reported its first-quarter financials. Firstly, it reported a net revenue of $37.8 billion, increasing by 18% year-over-year. Net service revenues for the quarter were $5.6 billion, increasing by 26.3% compared to a year earlier. “JD.com’s robust supply chain capabilities and technology-driven operating efficiency underpinned our solid performance during the quarter as we continued to deliver healthy growth amidst a challenging external environment,” said Lei Xu, CEO of JD.com. “More importantly, we are actively leveraging our core competencies to support local communities and enterprises in regions affected by the latest Omicron outbreak.” With this being said, is JD stock worth investing in today?
Home Depot Inc.
Another retail industry name to consider now would be Home Depot. In brief, it is the largest home improvement specialty retailer in the world. As of its latest quarterly update, the company operates via a total of 2,316 retail stores. The likes of which span all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Canada, and Mexico among other locations. Through its massive workforce of over 500,000 employees, Home Depot offers consumers a vast array of home improvement items alongside relevant services.
All in all, even as prices continue to rise, Home Depot’s operations continue to experience growth. For instance, we could look at the company’s latest quarterly update from back in May. In it, Home Depot reported its “highest first-quarter sales” to date. In detail, the company’s total sales for the first quarter of 2022 is $38.9 billion, a $1.4 billion increase year-over-year. Additionally, its comparable sales for the quarter were also up by 2.2%.
According to CEO Ted Decker, this performance is quite commendable. Namely, Decker highlights that these positive results are in comparison to “last year’s historic growth.” Decker also notes, “These results are a direct reflection of our associates’ continued ability to effectively navigate a challenging and dynamic environment.” Because of this, investors may consider keeping an eye on HD stock ahead of its upcoming earnings call on July 28. After considering all of this, would you do the same?
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