Is Traditional Apparel Retailing A Buying Opportunity?

Given the recent negative performance of many apparel retailers and some calls that traditional apparel retailing is dead, we are addressing our thoughts on these issues and discussing which subsectors and companies we see as positioned best for long-term success. 

In our opinion, there has been a secular shift in apparel retailing that is a persistent force. 

We believe the current trend toward value over brand is here to stay. Unless a product can perform notably better than the competition (keep you warmer, keep you drier, perform better in athletic situations), consumers appear unwilling to pay a premium simply to own a brand. 

We also think that shifts in wallet share are here to stay, with experience (travel, restaurants) valued over apparel, and other costs--including healthcare, education, and housing--rising in share. 

Finally, we think the shift in distribution channel toward digital will persist. 

As a result, we agree that apparel retail growth is not likely to return to historical levels. Having acknowledged that, we do believe that we are at a low point in the apparel retail cycle and there is future upside.

We do not believe brick-and-mortar apparel retailing is dead; however, it will look much different in the future. We think there is a place for stores where consumers can touch fabrics, try sizes, and see fit. 

However, the apparel industry has experienced much self-inflicted near-term malaise. Many management teams have been overly optimistic regarding inventory levels and have not converted to more modern, responsive supply chains. 

This has resulted in a highly promotional retail environment that has forced even well-run companies to discount to remain competitive. Also, we think we are nearing the end of the athleisure fashion trend. 

With consumers having enough skinny and yoga pants to clothe themselves for a while and no new fashion must-haves, nothing is driving discretionary purchases.

Check out a summary of the big fishes in traditional retailing:

These 20 Stocks Could Benefit From Higher Rates

The current problem on the market could be descried with the following sentence: Rising rates could let to a falling dollar. 

In contraction, Investors expect the US Dollar to rally, undermining equities and furthering headwinds to S&P 500 EPS and also amplified stress for EM borrowers (USD denom. debt). 

History says that the consensus is wrong and counters intuitively, when the Fed moves to neutral from easy (11 most recent cycles), USD weakened 55% of the time, with a median decline of 7% in the first year.

Below I've implemented screen results of stocks that might benefit from rising rate hikes. Stocks from the screen have fulfilled the following criteria:

Stock selection criteria...

(i) Stock’s price correlation to the USD (DXY Index) from 5/2014 – 3/2015 is less than -0.40

(ii) Mean implied upside based on analyst target prices is positive

(iii) P/E (‘15E and ‘16E) is below 25X but consensus EPS is positive

(iv) FCF yield is above 3%

(v) Company beat consensus EPS expectations the last 2 quarters.

Here are the 20 best yielding results in detail....

Ex-Dividend Stocks: Best Dividend Paying Shares On August 26, 2013

The best yielding and biggest ex-dividend stocks researched by ”long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Dividend Investors should have a quiet overview of stocks with upcoming ex dividend dates.

The ex dividend date is the final date on which the new stock buyer couldn’t receive the next dividend. If you like to receive the dividend, you need to buy the stock before the ex dividend date. I made a little screen of the best yielding stocks with a higher capitalization that have their ex date on the next trading day.

In total, 18 stocks go ex dividend - of which 12 yield more than 3 percent. The average yield amounts to 3.97%. Here is a full list of all stocks with ex-dividend date within the upcoming week.

Here is the sheet of the best yielding, higher capitalized ex-dividend stocks:

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
Knightsbridge Tankers Limited	VLCCF	283.07M	-	1.06	13.74	8.58%
Sun Life Financial Inc.	SLF	19.13B	12.95	1.31	1.39	4.38%
Mattel Inc.	MAT	14.45B	18.70	4.95	2.22	3.45%
Cinemark Holdings Inc.	CNK	3.56B	28.10	3.35	1.41	2.69%
Schweitzer-Mauduit Intern.	SWM	1.76B	16.43	3.32	2.26	2.12%
Steris Corp.	STE	2.56B	15.85	2.64	1.67	1.93%
Everest Re Group Ltd.	RE	6.76B	7.63	1.02	1.30	1.38%
Blackbaud Inc.	BLKB	1.56B	103.32	10.21	3.24	1.37%
Expedia Inc.	EXPE	6.34B	46.94	2.84	1.44	1.29%
Nielsen Holdings N.V.	NLSN	12.76B	44.01	2.31	2.28	0.24%
PVH Corp.	PVH	10.47B	29.41	2.54	1.60	0.11%
Vulcan Materials Company	VMC	6.47B	-	1.70	2.48	0.08%

100 Stocks At All-Time-Highs

List of stocks at All-Time-Highs originally published at "long-term-investments.blogspot.com". We are still in a bull market and have seen a small correction since 5/21. The trend is still intact which could be also checked by the number of stocks at All-Time-Highs. They came back recently to a big number.

Below is a list of the 100 best performing stocks at All-Time-Highs. The biggest players on the list are 3M, Danaher, Precision Castparts or Illinois Tool Works. Half of the results pay dividends and 81 have a current buy or better rating.

It’s good to see how fast some stocks recover, a very healthy sign from the market. But the risk increases with every percentage point. You need to take care about the valuation of the stocks. Only 18 percent of the top 100 companies at All-Time-Highs are valuated with a P/E below 15.

The Most Recommended Consumer Goods Stocks | 20 Dividend Stocks With Highest Buy Rating

Most recommended consumer goods dividend stocks originally published at "long-term-investments.blogspot.com". Today I like to screen one of my favorite investment sectors, the consumer goods sector. I want to show you who are the best, higher yielding dividend stocks with a buy or better rating.

Stocks from the sector have a total market capitalization of USD 197.4 trillion. The average P/E is 21.58 and the dividend yield amounts to 3.28 percent. The highest yielding industries are still business equipments and cigarettes.

Cigarettes and tobacco companies have the highest share in my private portfolio. They represent around 25 percent of my assets and they are also one of my biggest dividend contributors over the year.

However, 396 stocks are available for trading with a relation to the consumer sector. 185 of them pay dividends and 123 have a current buy or better rating. Below is a small list of the 20 higher capitalized companies (over USD 2 billion) with the highest buy rating. Most of the results are low yielding but the expected growth rates for the next years look fantastic. Dare a glance and let me know in the comment area which of the stocks you like most.

Best Consumer Stock Picks For 2013 | Growth Fairly Priced

Today I like to hunt for the best consumer growth stock picks of the next year 2013. The consumer sector is one of my favorite investment areas. 

Nearly half of my investments were made in consumer related product companies. I really love this sector due to the fact that there are so many well diversified companies with low risks. 

Stocks from the sector raise dividends like clockwork and sharing their business success with shareholders. 

In addition, I believe that the end-consumer spending will grow steadily because it’s a desire of humans to attain wealth and supply. People also want to represent something special. All ends in rising consumer demand. 

The consumer goods sector has nearly 400 companies listed and most of them are of low growth. Smart investors should take a closer look at the buy opportunities in order to find the best share to invest in.

Let's go! I made a screen of the best consumer growth picks. These are my criteria:

- Forward P/E under 15

- Past 5Y Sales growth over 10 percent

- Earnings per share growth for the next five years over 10 percent

- Operating Margin over 10 percent

Twelve stocks fulfilled these criteria of which six pay dividends and all twelve are currently recommended to buy. The results are dominated by textile, apparel, footwear and accessories stocks.

20 Best Stocks To Buy Or Sell On Black Friday

The best stocks to trade on Black Friday; originally published at “long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Today is Black Friday. Yes, also for the financial markets is this calendar date a very meaningful event. It is the first day of the pre Christmas shopping season which indicates the strength of the full period. People searching for the best offers, the most attractive deals and spend as much money as their credit card allows. Some companies will benefit from Black Friday and the pre Christmas shopping season. Investors should be careful by buying Black Friday stocks.

I made a screen of well-known stocks which have an exposure to the current event. They are well diversified and should not have a higher downside risk if the sales numbers are weaker than expected. If you like the theme shopping and consumer goods and you like to buy stocks from several industries covering these ideas then you should take a look at the list of the 20 Black Friday stocks below.

The Black Friday shopping stock list consists of twenty stocks with consumer focus (apparel, jewelry, retail electronics and food). Most of them pay dividends and the average stocks is expected to grow in earnings by a double-digit amount. Below the results is one high-yield and sixteen have a current buy or better rating by brokerage firms.

Best Ex-Dividend Stock List For November 19, 2012

The Best Yielding And Biggest Ex-Dividend Stocks Researched By Dividend Yield - Stock, Capital, Investment. Dividend Investors should have a quiet overview of stocks with upcoming ex dividend dates. The ex dividend date is the final date on which the new stock buyer couldn’t receive the next dividend. If you like to receive the dividend, you need to buy the stock before the ex dividend date. I made a little screen of the best yielding stocks with a higher capitalization that have their ex date on the next trading day.

A full list of all stocks with ex-dividend date can be found here: Ex-Dividend Stocks on November 19, 2012. In total, 40 stocks and preferred shares go ex dividend - of which 18 yield more than 3 percent. The average yield amounts to 3.73%. If you like to receive the next dividend you need to buy the dividend stocks now.

Here is the sheet of the best yielding, higher capitalized ex dividend stocks:

Company	Ticker	Mcap	P/E	P/B	P/S	Yield
Pengrowth Energy Corporation	PGH	2.59B	-	0.61	2.41	9.45%
Arcelor Mittal	MT	23.04B	-	0.41	0.26	5.08%
Microchip Technology Inc.	MCHP	5.74B	28.20	2.84	4.09	4.76%
Thomson Reuters Corporation	TRI	22.58B	-	1.33	1.68	4.68%
Autoliv, Inc.	ALV	5.27B	10.36	1.43	0.64	3.62%
Maxim Integrated Products Inc.	MXIM	7.99B	23.43	3.12	3.34	3.50%
Applied Materials Inc.	AMAT	12.75B	12.41	1.53	1.38	3.50%
Cinemark Holdings Inc.	CNK	2.93B	18.34	2.72	1.22	3.30%
Assured Guaranty Ltd.	AGO	2.50B	4.24	0.53	1.37	2.80%
Marathon Petroleum Corporation	MPC	18.29B	7.21	1.78	0.23	2.59%
Valero Energy Corporation	VLO	16.37B	14.79	0.94	0.12	2.37%
Target Corp.	TGT	40.89B	14.29	2.57	0.57	2.31%
Marathon Oil Corporation	MRO	21.57B	11.97	1.25	1.37	2.23%
Wyndham Worldwide	WYN	6.87B	19.21	3.40	1.55	1.88%
Progressive Corp.	PGR	13.44B	14.92	2.05	0.82	1.83%
Silver Wheaton Corp.	SLW	12.54B	22.84	4.21	16.62	0.79%
FedEx Corporation	FDX	27.18B	13.52	1.83	0.63	0.65%
Allergan Inc.	AGN	27.05B	25.72	4.74	4.75	0.23%
PVH Corp.	PVH	7.57B	23.28	2.72	1.27	0.14%

16 Best Growing Dividend Paying Consumer Goods Stocks

Best Dividend Stocks From The Consumer Goods Sector Researched By “long-term-investments.blogspot.com”. Stocks from the consumer sector are important for the U.S. Economy. At the capital markets are 403 consumer goods stocks tradeable. The whole market capitalization of them amounts to USD 165.60 trillion. The average dividend yield has a value of 2.59 percent and the P/E ratio is 20.40.

In order to find the best dividend paying large cap growth stocks from the investment sector, I screened all companies with a positive dividend yield, great earnings per share growth of more than 10 percent and an operating margin over 10 percent. To get the best results in terms of low debt and high cash, the debt to equity ratio should be under one. Finally, the market capitalization should be above USD 2 billion. Sixteen consumer stocks remained of which twelve are currently recommended to buy.