Evaluating Kohl’s Strong Holiday-Season Sales Performance

Analyst Chuck Grom is a managing director at Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. A regular commentator on financial matters, Chuck Grom recently was featured in Reuters discussing the strong performance of Kohl’s Corp. in the 2017 holiday season. 

Between November and December 2017, Kohl’s posted an impressive 6.9 percent increase in same-store sales, its best holiday performance in 36 months. Store activity checks by research company Retail Metrics also indicate that Kohl’s was one of the most visited department chains in the country during that period. 

Kohl’s sales performance was higher than the 1-4 percent increases reported by JCPenney and Macy’s. According to analysts, this good showing was attributable to the company’s shifting business model away from shopping malls to stand-alone department stores. The performance also follows a revamp of the retailer’s beauty departments, an increased space allocation for Under Armour sporting goods, and a partnership with Amazon for its smart home products.

Retail Prices Were Strong During 2017 Holiday Season

With past experience spanning Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan, Chuck Grom is a Wall Street analyst who focuses on consumer-facing retail segments. A late 2017 Forbes article featured Chuck Grom’s insights into strong holiday sales, which marked an end to “price wars” for the time being.

With the National Retail Federation reporting total retail sales up by six percent in November, with online sales and non-store growing by 10.5 percent, large-scale blanket discounts were not materializing, as in previous years.

Chuck Grom noted that the major winners in this scenario were in consumer electronics, home improvement, apparel, and even struggling department stores. Perhaps the largest beneficiary of the uptick was in the furniture area, with many Millennials hitting their “peak buying years.”

Another contributor to strong prices was appropriate inventories, with retailers not significantly overbuying and thus charging the full retail amount. One related trend seems to be that the Amazon-driven retail price battles are finally coming to an end. As early as July 2017, it was reported that Amazon no longer had lower prices on the full spectrum of items, as compared with Jet.com and Walmart.com.

Cowboys Add to Wide Receiver Depth with Signing of Deonte Thompson

A former StarMine Thomson Reuters No. 1 Earnings Estimator in the multi-line retail sector with CRT Sterne Agee, Chuck Grom joined Gordon Haskett Research Advisors as a managing director in February 2017. In addition to analyzing department store stocks, Chuck Grom is a passionate fan of the National Football League's (NFL) Dallas Cowboys.

The NFL free agency period opened in March and, while the Cowboys have yet to make a significant signing, the team signed six-year veteran Deonte Thompson to a one-year, $2.5 million contract. Known for his speed, Thompson is expected to serve as a formidable threat for the Cowboys passing attack, a role that was filled last season by Brice Butler, who Dallas opted not to re-sign.

Though he wasn't drafted, Thompson signed with the Baltimore Ravens in 2012 but was used sparingly. He recorded a combined 147 receiving yards in two seasons with the team before being released the following season. He had a career-best season in 2017 with a combined 555 receiving yards and two touchdowns split between the Buffalo Bills and Chicago Bears. He also averaged an impressive 14.6 yards per reception.

Wal-Mart Reacts to Tax Reform Through US Employee Wage Increase

A veteran Wall Street analyst, Chuck Grom leverages past experience with JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank as Gordon Haskett Research managing director. With extensive knowledge of consumer-facing retail segments, Chuck Grom’s firm recently provided insight within a Bloomberg article on Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s January 2018, announcement that it would increase its starting pay across the United States to $11 an hour.

This wage increase represents a 10 percent gain for employees of the largest retailer worldwide, which has global sales that generate nearly $500 billion annually. The total cost of the wage increase for Wal-Mart will be $300 million, not including one-time cash bonuses also planned. 

With Wal-Mart expected to generate $12 billion in net income in 2018 and achieving $57 million in hourly sales, this amount represents approximately nine days of profits. The wage increase is among the strategies undertaken, including buybacks and price cuts, to utilize the $2 billion in tax benefits realized under the new US tax system reforms. 

The cost of the wage increase, while substantial, is small relative to total operations. As a point of reference, the company’s US e-commerce chief Marc Lore received $244 million in 2016 as part of shares attached to his company Jet.com, which was purchased by Wal-Mart.

Bright Spots in a Challenging Furniture Retail Landscape

New York-based financial analyst Chuck Grom holds managing director responsibilities with Gordon Haskett Research Advisors, where he focuses on retail sectors spanning supermarkets, broadline retail, and department stores. Chuck Grom has extensive experience covering furniture store businesses, which are facing declining sales.

In 2017, the furniture business was impacted by the two major hurricanes that hit Texas and Florida around the Labor Day weekend. However, there is good news for the industry, as well.

As reported in Furniture Today, federal data points to year-on-year sales increases of 5.4 percent and 4.3 percent in August and July, respectively. Moreover, when insurance claims related to the hurricanes are sorted out, there will be pent-up demand for new furnishings. The article cites Mr. Grom as anticipating a four- to six-month lag in incremental sales.

One persistent threat to traditional furniture retailers comes from e-commerce leaders such as Amazon and Wayfair. In addition, “brick-and-click” companies such as Tuft & Needle and Casper are making inroads, as are new entries like Interior Define. That said, consumers are still much more likely to purchase furniture at physical locations than is the case with other mass merchant categories, such as apparel.

Department Stores' Sales Decline Continues as E-tailers Diversify

Chuck Grom holds responsibilities as managing director with Gordon Haskett Research Advisors in New York and provides knowledgeable analysis of consumer-facing sectors. Among the companies that Chuck Grom covers are traditional department stores such as Kohl’s, Macy’s, JCPenney, and Nordstrom.

A recent Denver Post article pointed to broad demographic shifts in the way in which consumers purchase clothes, with social media more influential than store displays within a mall setting. Eating at stores’ core margins is an increasing number of niche online retailers that are able to leverage low overheads to emphasize discounts and a wider array of styles. 

Deloitte analysts estimate that curated brands such as Bonobos and Stitch Fix, as well as discounters such as thredUP, have taken approximately $200 billion in revenues from the market’s leading 25 retailers over the past five years. The 3 percent overall increase in US clothing sales to $218.7 billion in 2016 masked a 4 percent decline in sales among national department stores and mall-based chains. Increased sales among brick-and-mortar retailers were led by off-price stores such as Ross and T.J. Maxx, which achieved 5 percent growth. 

With Internet e-tailers quick to come and go, one emerging trend involves companies such as Bonobos, Warby Parker, and Blue Nile setting up showrooms and positioning themselves as hybrid retailing forces.

Walmart Partners with Google to Deliver Voice-Activated Shopping

The recipient of a bachelor's degree in economics and accounting from Holy Cross College, Chuck Grom is an experienced stock analyst who serves as a managing director with New York's Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. In that capacity, Chuck Grom watches a variety of department store stocks, including Walmart’s.

Despite being the world's largest retailer, Walmart's online shopping platform is pale in comparison to Amazon. However, in an effort to compete with the e-commerce company, Walmart has partnered with Google to expand its voice-activated shopping services. Walmart will make hundreds of thousands of its items available for ordering on Google Express, all of which can be purchased through Google Assistant via a smart speaker or smartphone. 

Beginning in October, United States residents who own a Google Home smart speaker can simply speak into the device to order from an extensive list of Walmart products and have them delivered quickly and free of charge to their home. The smart shopping system will integrate previous purchases made through Walmart retail locations and on Walmart.com, meaning Google Home owners will receive personalized shopping recommendations. Amazon has the advantage of being the first to market the notion of virtual assistants to help with online purchases, but the Walmart and Google partnership could help change the landscape of the e-commerce sector.

Costco Shares Drastically Decline over Three-Month Period

The recipient of a bachelor's in economics from College of the Holy Cross, Chuck Grom is an experienced stock analyst who has appeared numerous times on CNBC and been quoted by hundreds of news outlets. Since February 2017, Chuck Grom has served as managing director of Gordon Haskett Research Advisors, where he covers a variety of broadline and department store stocks, including Costco.

Despite scoring an A in VGM (Value, Growth, Momentum) from Zacks Equity Research, Costco's stock has been plummeting steadily for three months. The wholesale giant is still one of the most dominant in the industry based on its range of products and quality of merchandise, but Costco Wholesale Corporation shares dropped over 14 percent from June to the end of August. In contrast, the retail discount store industry declined just 5.9 percent on average. 

Shares began to be affected when it was announced that Amazon had purchased Whole Foods Market for $42 per share in a deal that totaled a reported $13.7 billion. Shares of Costco plunged nearly 7.2 percent that day and took another drastic dip in August. However, Zacks is not concerned with the stock's long-term potential, as Costco has continued to expand its presence with at least 20 new outlets in each of the past three years, accompanied by consistent increases in average transaction size and store traffic through the 2017 fiscal year.

Wal-Mart Pulls Ahead in Increasingly Digital Retail Landscape

As a managing director and senior analyst at Gordon Haskett Research Advisors, Chuck Grom draws on two decades of financial sector experience to oversee the retail sector for the New York City investment research firm. Having previously served as a broadline and department store sector analyst for firms included Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, Chuck Grom is well-versed in the market factors impacting brick-and-mortar retailers.

While the rapid growth of the global e-commerce market is creating new opportunities for several retailers, others are struggling to keep pace with the competition. This is clearly demonstrated in a recent article by Matthew Boyle for Bloomberg Technology, which explores a number of factors that have recently led the dominant big-box retailer Wal-Mart to overtake several of its competitors. 

Most notably, Wal-Mart has begun to outperform Target, which has long held a competitive edge over Wal-Mart due to its modern, trendy reputation. However, Target’s recognizable designers and sleek store layouts haven’t been enough to sustain positive sales growth; while Wal-Mart’s same-store sales increased from 2016 to 2017, Target’s sales have declined. Market experts attribute Wal-Mart’s success to several factors, including its higher market penetration, cleaner store designs, more consistently lower prices, and innovative online strategy. The retail chain has evolved alongside the e-commerce sector, and recently unveiled a new curbside pickup option to make its already-thriving grocery department more convenient for consumers. Wal-Mart has also ramped-up its rate of new patent creation, particularly in the realms of web development and in-store customer experience. For example, one innovative idea could introduce drones to deliver products from storage to store shelves.

New York Jets Improve Backfield with First Two Draft Picks

An experienced retail stock analyst who earned numerous awards during his time with JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, and CRT Sterne Agee, Chuck Grom serves as a managing director for New York's Gordon Haskett Research Advisors. Outside of his professional pursuits, Chuck Grom is a passionate fan and season ticket holder for the National Football League's (NFL) New York Jets.

The Jets have failed to make the playoffs in each of the past six seasons and enter the 2017 campaign with questions at quarterback, but the team's future in the backfield looks bright with the acquisition of Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye. New York owned the no. 6 and no. 39 overall pick in April's NFL draft and used them respectively to select Adams and May, a pair of safeties who had considerable success at the collegiate level.

Adams was considered a home-run selection by Sports Illustrated, which gave the pick an 'A' grade. He spent the past three seasons with Louisiana State University, where he recorded a combined 209 tackles, 14 passes defended, five interceptions, and two forced fumbles. Maye, meanwhile, played all four seasons of his college eligibility at the University of Florida, where he accumulated a combined 205 tackles, 16 passes defended, five interceptions, and six forced fumbles.

Yankees Still Most Valuable Franchise in Baseball

Chuck Grom builds on his 20-year career as a results-oriented financial analyst with firms such as JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank in his current role as a managing director with Gordon Haskett Research Advisors in New York City. An avid fan of New York sports, Chuck Grom enjoys New York Yankees baseball.

Once again, Forbes has rated the New York Yankees as the most valuable Major League Baseball franchise, estimating the club’s net value at $3.7 billion. The valuation marks a nine percent growth from the prior year. The figures reflect a team that is still thriving financially, despite lackluster performance over recent seasons and a 10 percent decline in attendance since 2015. 

In an attempt to court younger fans and market the venue as a metropolitan destination as well as a sports park, the Yankees recently performed some light renovations to the stadium, taking out over 2,000 outfield seats to make room for patio bars. The team also took advantage of lower interest rates in 2016 by refinancing $1 billion of the bonds used to build the new stadium, improving its leverage in the process.

Apple Poised For Growth On Multiple Fronts

Chuck Grom is a longtime Wall Street analyst who engages with Gordon Haskett Research Advisors as managing director and covers a number of retail sectors. With a strong interest in market trends, Chuck Grom follows several major companies. Apple was recently in the news with speculation growing that the release of the iPhone 8 will coincide with a boost in earnings and stock price.

With the iPhone 8 set to incorporate high-end features, from augmented reality/3-D sensing technologies to a 5.8-inch OLED display, the per unit price is likely to rise from $749 and break the $1,000 barrier for the first time. This has led some analysts to predict a stock price rise from the $164 range to around $170 per share.

Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch also describe a significant upside for Apple in entering a number of new market areas, including health care and streaming TV, which encompasses the lucrative video game sector. Another area of potential growth for Apple is in autonomous cars, which Tesla has current dominance in. An added value feature of the Apple Car would be seamless integration into an expanded Siri system that is also likely to power a smart home assistant that competes with Google Home and Amazon Echo.