Retail Stocks

While Costco appears to be seeing improvement in their operating margins, we feel that severe weather that blanketed much of the nation over the last few weeks could limit any upside surprise.

Amazon has established itself as the face of ecommerce and has delivered impressive growth despite the severe economic recession.

While an improving economic environment is certainly a positive for eBay, investors have to be concerned about the eBay’s competitive positioning versus Amazon.

Amazon.com is poised to report another quarter of stellar growth despite the difficult retail environment.

The earnings calendar looks very light this week ahead of next week’s initial third quarter reports. Here are the key earnings reports should watch for this week:

We believe that Best Buy will likely expand upon their recent market share gains, but likely still faces challenges from weak consumer demand.

While the company has been able to increase margins by engaging in productive cost cutting, sales numbers have been particularly weak over the last couple of quarters.

While we expect that Pep Boys has benefitted from GM and Chrysler closing hundreds of dealerships across the country, their stock price appears to have risen too high too fast.

We are looking for Barnes & Noble to report earnings at the midpoint of their guidance range after delivering stronger than expected results last quarter. While the book seller continues to face severe economic headwinds, we believe the company remains focused on maintaining gross margins and reducing expenses.

While top-line growth remains challenging due to weak economic factors, Target continues to deliver strong margins through solid expense management.