Sears and Whirlpool: The Breakup; Mall Rats: Target vs. Amazon; 3M Earnings: It’s More Than Just Post-its

It’s not you. It’s me…

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Breaking up is hard to do. Especially if the numbers don’t add up. Which is precisely why Sears is dumping Whirlpool along with all of its other brands including Maytag, KitchenAid and JennAir. According to Sears, “Whirlpool has sought to use its dominant position in the marketplace to make demands that would have prohibited us from offering Whirlpool products to our members at a reasonable price.” Which I guess is Sears’s way of telling everyone that Whirlpool really just needed to get over itself because it felt people weren’t going to pay a lot of money for appliances that don’t say Wolf on them. If you know what I mean. And I think you do.  And just like that, a one-hundred-year-old relationship was brought to its knobby knees.  In case you were wondering if this breakup had anything to do with Sears’s own fiscal woes, you’d be mistaken.  After all, you can still walk into your local Sears and pick up a very fancy schmancy Bosch or LG appliance. And while Sears stock took a 3% hit today on the news, Whirlpool’s stock fared worse with investors sending the stock down over 10%.As for Whirlpool, while the company did report disappointing earnings, it can’t really point the finger at Sears, since the beleaguered retailer was only responsible for 3% of Whirlpool’s global sales.

Down with Amazon…

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Could it be that the unstoppable, unflappable Amazon is actually getting stopped and flapped? Apparently, that’s the case as it goes up against Target and other major big-box retailers, not in the online arena, but in the real estate realm. Of course Amazon’s A-game is in its e-commerce, but it’s the big box retailers that have the advantage when it comes to brick-and-mortars. Just ask Whole Foods, who can tell you a thing or two about trying to find a place to call home. You see, it all boils down to leases. Think of a co-op board, except the president of the board in this case tends to be big companies like Target, Best Buy and Bed Bath & Beyond, among others. Those guys get a lot of say in who moves into their malls. And because Target and friends are paying the biggest amount of money in leases, they get to make all sorts of demands, like who is and isn’t allowed to move into a particular mall and under what conditions they can move in. Now that Whole Foods calls Amazon its boss, it’s finding it challenging to get into new locations if there are already other big retailers installed that find themselves competing with Amazon. See how the tables have turned?

Post this!

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If you used a Post-It note today then you helped contribute to 3M’s third-quarter boffo earnings. All those office supplies and little pieces of paper may not look like much but they raked in $8.2 billion in sales with a profit of $1.43 billion that added $2.33 per share. That profit, by the way, was an 8% increase over last year’s profit at this time. But in all fairness, the company’s not just about it post-it notes and tape. The company also makes industrial coatings and ceramics and those items bring in big money. The stock itself is up over 30% in the last year and today’s news sent shares up the most in eight years. Crazy, I know. It also helps that two-thirds of 3M’s sales come from overseas. So even when there’s a strong dollar working against U.S.-based business, a company that earns a majority of its money outside the country is able to hold its own very well and can offset losses. The icing on the cake, for 3M anyway, is that the company beat Wall Street’s expectations. And who isn’t a sucker for a good Wall Street beat?

Swooshed Out: Nike Losing Ground?; Starbucks Perks Up Hiring Goals; Is the End Near for Sears?

Just not doing it…

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Looks like consumers aren’t doing it for Nike as the athletic apparel company posted some pretty unimpressive numbers for its third quarter. To be clear, Nike didn’t lose money. It just didn’t make as much money as analysts wanted it to. For instance, even though Nike took in $8.43 billion in revenue, a 5% increase over last year, analysts were expecting $8.47 billion this time around. The collective disappointment on Wall Street sent shares down because investors are apparently wondering if the company behind the iconic swoosh can withstand some fierce competition from Under Armour and Adidas. But that wasn’t the only bad news sending shares down today. Nike also said that it expects future orders to be down 4%. Nike did score a profit of over $1.1 billion with 68 cents added to shares, a figure that easily beat analysts’ expectations of 53 cents per share. Last year at this time, Nike took in $950 million with 55 cents added per share, illustrating a very respectable increase. Unfortunately, the bit about the decline on future orders didn’t stop from putting a damper on the fiscal mood on Wall Street.

Well done…

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Starbucks is making headlines today after announcing that it not only hit its goal of hiring 10,000 army veterans and military spouses, but now plans to hire another 15,000. Starbucks had hoped it would achieve that milestone by 2018, but lo and behold, it hit its mark well ahead of schedule and the glowing news was announced during its annual shareholders meeting, much to the delight of…everyone. If you recall, back in February, CEO Howard Schultz – who is stepping down at the beginning of April – managed to annoy more than a few of his coffee drinkers when he announced plans to hire 10,000 refugees globally.  Apparently some folks thought those refugee hirings were in place of hiring veterans and thus began a social media campaign urging people to #BoycottStarbucks.  But alas, that was not exactly accurate and the coffee chain found itself explaining that it intended to hire employees from both groups. And that’s not all. The purveyor of premium coffee also plans on creating another 240,000 jobs worldwide by 2021. Because if you were worried that there weren’t enough Starbucks, the company is planning to open 3,400 new stores, just in the United States. So yeah, it’ll definitely need a few extra baristas.

Throwing in the towel?

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It might just be the end of an era as the 130 year old Sears announced in an SEC filing that “substantial doubts” exist with regard to its future. In other words, the department store is staring at the prospect of bankruptcy, and will end up bringing Kmart with it. What’s a little weird about that news though, is that the company’s fourth quarter results were actually better than expected, albeit, dismal. “Better than expected” here basically means that the retailer didn’t lose as much money in its fourth quarter as it was expected to, at least compared to last year’s fourth quarter. The fact remains, however, that according to eMarketer, of the top 250 retailers, Sears is dead last in terms of performance, as it just can’t compete with the offerings of online retailers. In fact, Sears ate over $5 billion in losses just in the last three years and has already been closing plenty of stores, selling off some of its brands and taken other measures just to stay afloat. Besides that, Sears is having too much trouble with its pension plan obligations which has been also eating up a lot of its cash – $4 billion just in the last twelve years. Add to that its more than $13 billion in liabilities and Sears’ future is looking positively grim.

Sears Dives Into “Dump Trump” Fray; Allergan Goes From Face to Body-Contouring; Teva Beats Despite Turmoil

To dump Trump or not to dump Trump?

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Sears is the latest company caught up in the great retail debate over its decision to discontinue carrying Trump branded merchandise. It would seem that the merchandise of both President Donald Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, have been dropped from Sears and Kmart stores – which Sears owns. However, while Sears and Kmart have put the kibosh on 31 Trump Home items, there’s still plenty more Trump merchandise available online for sale via third-party vendors. Believe it or not, Sears goes by the numbers, at least the ones attached with a dollar sign, and has been putting great efforts into kicking up its online presence. So if items are profitable, they get to stay. If they are not? Well, you get it. This is in the wake of Nordstrom’s decision last week to ditch Ivanka’s line completely. Rumor has it that sales of her merchandise tanked more than 70% for most of October, compared with the same time period last year, when the would-be president still hadn’t yet managed to offend an almost an entire gender of the electorate. Since the Trump brand has been unpopular these days, plenty of customers have little desire to purchase many of its products.  But make no mistake, if the items in question had been selling, either at Sears or Nordstrom, don’t think for a second that the stores wouldn’t have kept the merchandise on its shelves, no matter what the President said – or tweeted.

Yoga, it ain’t…

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Allergan, the maker of everyone’s favorite wrinkle-fighter, Botox, is going to scoop up Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. for about $2.5 billion, or about $56.40 per share. That’s more than a 14% premium from Friday’s closing price. Naturally shares of Zeltiq went up, because, hey, who would’t want to join the Botox family, right? But here’s the fun part, in case you have never heard of Zeltiq. The company makes a body-contouring product, called the CoolSculpting system, that will fit in nicely at Allergan. Your face and your butt get contoured and primed all from one company. If there’s a regulatory issue with that, then I don’t care. Zeltiq has already been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and yes indeed, that kind of makes it more legit. CoolSculpting apparently reduces the appearance of fat by freezing it, however, I’m not sure that it actually gets rid of the junk in the trunk. Instead, it just shapes it into your body, like play-doh. Or something like that. Laugh all you want but there’s nothing funny about the 37% worth of revenue brought in by CoolSculpting systems products, which helped Zeltiq take in a net revenue of $374 million for 2016. Allergan CEO Brent Sanders must be onto something, since the body-contouring market is a whopping $4 billion industry and, according to him, is the fastest growing field in medical aesthetics.

Not the usual generic stuff…

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Not all pharmaceutical companies are having as much fun as Allergan. Last week, shares of Teva pharmaceuticals seemed to be in an ugly state of free fall, and matters didn’t help when its CEO Erez Vigodman suddenly left the company. The official word is that Erez Vigodman’s decision to leave Teva was part of a mutual agreement. At least that’s the story they’re sticking to. But even before that, the company was having fiscal issues in the way of delayed drug launches and major acquisitions that wreaked all sorts of ugly fiscal havoc on the company’s stock price. Then, lo and behold, the company reported an earnings beat this morning and all seems right in the world once again for the company.  Teva took in revenues of $6.5 billion, adding $1.38 per share when estimates were for $6.24 billion and $1.35 per share.  Also from the good news front, the company didn’t even see the need to adjust its forecast for the year, and still expects to score between $23.8 billion to $24.5 billion in revenues and adding between $4.90 to $5.30 to shares.  Interim CEO and President Yitzchak Peterburg took the call and said it was “a critical time for Teva, and we are here to fix what is not working.” Which basically means they are desperately trying to figure out how they can get the company to start pulling down some major cash, ditch  a lot of debt and improve its prospects.  Rumors are swirling that the company will split into two: one to focus on its generic offerings and the other for its branded products. According to some experts, a move like this could solve a ton of problems. Just maybe not all of them. Another possibility is to sell off its branded generic drugs biz in an effort to unload some its major debt. Time will tell.  Because I certainly can’t.

Kate Spade Shares Stylin’ on Latest Reports; Sears Has a Fiscal Guardian Angel; Amazon Dismisses Gravity With Latest Patent

I’m so fancy…

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Kate Spade wants to put itself up for grabs and that news sent its shares up 23%, giving Wall Street plenty of cause to celebrate. And the Street will take whatever it can get, especially since Kate Spade was down 9% just in the last six months. In fact, similar companies including Michael Kors and Coach have also experienced declines during the same time period. But the kicker is that both of those companies, along with four others, are being bandied about as potential buyers of Kate Spade. Talk of a potential sale is just what hedge fund Caerus Investors wants to hear. While the firm, which entered the picture back in 2009, hasn’t disclosed its exact stake in the company, it did send a letter to Kate Spade’s board back in November urging it to put itself on the auction block. And that’s exactly what’s planned for next month. With a market cap of $2.3 billion, Caerus thinks Kate Spade could get picked up for a nifty premium – between $21 to $23 per share -and naturally, Caerus stands to profit from that. But that wasn’t the only story to come out of Kate Spade today. Apparently, an options trader purchased 2,000 calls for Kate Spade shares just minutes before it was reported that it’s exploring a sale. A call, by the way, allows a buyer to score shares at a pre-agreed upon price. Not only was one very lucky buyer involved, but it also netted a very shrewd trader a cool $320,000 within minutes. Insider info? Hmmm. I’m sure the SEC would like to know. Because that would be so bad. Just ask Martha Stewart. As for Kate Spade, she hasn’t been part of the company since 2006.

On a another note…

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Even though its stock just went up 9% – the most in two months – Wall Street definitely does not feel the same amount of love for Sears as it does for Kate Spade. The stock closed at a 52 week low just yesterday and its planning to close 30 more Sears and Kmart stores in early 2017. But there is someone who seems to love the embattled retailer unconditionally: CEO Eddie Lampert, who said he’s going to get a $200 million letter of credit for the troubled company. In fact, he has so much faith in the company  – and apparently he’s the only one who does – that he thinks that letter of credit could grow to $500 million. This is not Lampert’s first “loan” to Sears. In the last two years he’s shelled out over $800 million to the company.  Talk about faith.  At least this loan comes with guarantees that if Sears goes bust, its suppliers will still get paid. I wonder if the rest of his hedge fund buds over at ESL Investments feel the same, even as the firm continues to back Sears? For some inexplicable reason, Lampert is devoted to Sears, despite the fact that its sales are constantly going down and it has already lost billions. Most investors think the time has come to throw in the retail towel.  But not Lampert, who in addition to being Sears’s CEO and biggest cheerleader for the last four years, also happens to be its biggest investor.  However, others only see red flags and are wondering why Lampert is the only one eager to throw money at a company which has been losing so much of it in so little time.  Sears’s last quarter lost $750 million, so much worse than last year at this time when it only lost $454 million. Revenue fell a whopping 13% to $5 billion. In fact, in the last eight years, Sears has lost around $9 billion. Also, with the seeming exception of Lampert, everyone is wondering why Sears would need money right after the holiday season, which is supposed to be the most lucrative quarter out of the whole year.

Yeah, they thought of that too…

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Because fulfillment centers weren’t enough, now the e-commerce giant is looking to do away with gravity – besides logistics companies – with its latest patent for an airborne fulfillment center (AFC). It’s exactly what it sounds like – a warehouse in the sky. Flying at a lofty 45,000 feet, drones would basically zoom into the warehouse, pick up items that were ordered and then deliver them.  The company’s ramped up its drone tech efforts and this latest project fits in nicely with that initiative.  Right now Amazon drone delivery requires that Amazon build warehouses in specific areas, on land, where drones can happily roam free and deliver items to customers. Some of the uses mentioned in the filing include fulfilling orders during football games. The AFC would be stocked ahead of time with certain game “essentials” that could be easily delivered as you cheer for your favorite team. Another idea would be to allow customers to order right from a giant ad board and have their items delivered “within minutes.” But before you start having nightmares of flying robotic insects whizzing all around you, Amazon is going to need to get major regulatory approval from aviation authorities before launching any airships.

It’s About to Go Down Between Aetna and the Dept. of Justice; Target in Need of Retail Therapy; Barnes and Noble Has a Job Opening. If You Dare.

Put up your dukes…

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And the gloves are off between the Department of Justice and Aetna. Aetna announced it would be reducing its role in the Obamacare exchange, stopping to sell individual insurance, and the Justice Department was apparently warned about such actions last month. You see, because ACA has been costing insurance companies so much money, Aetna wanted to scoop up rival Humana to help absorb costs. But the Justice Department was against the merger over concerns that it would increase prices for consumers and limit competition – your typical antitrust concerns. In a letter to the Justice Department dated July 5, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini made it abundantly clear that Aetna  would drop out of the Obamacare exchange if the merger did not go his way. It didn’t. And so here we are. Aetna crticics have cried extortion and threats. Aetna , however, calls it a strategic business decision after eating a $200 million loss in its second quarter. Insurers feel that mergers alleviate the enormous costs brought on by Obamacare. They argue that Obamacare has put a major dent in their economics and the government is not holding up its end of the bargain to help mitigate the situation.

Buyer’s remorse…

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Target has missed its target in what the company called a “difficult retail environment.” Well, for Target anyway. The sixth largest retailer cut its full-year fiscal profit after quarterly sales fell more than expected. One of the culprits was a smaller demand for its tech offerings, specifically Apple products. Of course, it’s to be expected that the company is constantly losing ground to Amazon. After all, who isn’t? The company has also been making a push to redo its grocery division by bringing in more organics, gourmet and healthful offerings. That endeavor hasn’t quite hits its stride. And that’s a problem since Target’s grocery division accounts for a fifth of the company’s revenue. Target did turn up a profit of $680 million. Too bad it was a 10% decrease over the same time last year. Sales were down 7.2% to $16.2 billion which was almost on par with estimates. CEO Brian Cornell griped that customer visits went down and now expects a profit range of $4.80 – $5.20, when before it was between $5.20 – $5.40.  It seems his turnaround plan is taking a bit longer to actually um,…turn. In other Target developments, to address its transgender-bathroom policy, the retailer is plunking down $20 million to install single stall bathrooms to its remaining stores that don’t already have them.

Buh-bye…

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Shelve this one under history as Barnes and Noble booted its CEO Ronald D. Boire. The bookseller felt the exec, who had the job for not quite a year, was “not a good fit.” However, to be fair, he did previously fit in at Brookstone, Best Buy, Sony and Sears Canada. Executive chairman  Leonard Riggio will take over until a more permanent replacement can be found and Riggio can finally begin his much-anticipated retirement.  The board said of Boire’s untimely departure that the decision was in “best interest of all parties for him to leave the company.” Ouch. In B&N’s most recent quarter – under Boire – the company took in $876.6 million. Impressive, right? Wrong. B&N took in $910 million the year before. It also lost $30.6 million, far more than the $19.6 million it lost during the same time last year. As efforts to trim costs and turn the company around have yet to yield any meaningful results, shares of the company have also managed to tank to its lowest price in eight months. While B&N has 640 stores dotting the planet, it is still losing ground to that animal we call Amazon. And once again, who isn’t?

 

Morgan Stanley Finally Owns Up to All the Trouble It Caused; It’s a Darn Claim Unemployment Filings Are Up; Sears is Losing It

It was just a matter of time…

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Morgan Stanley is taking a bit of a beating today on Wall Street now that it has finally finally settled with the Department of Justice over its shady little role leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Morgan Stanley reached a deal with the DOJ  that’ll have the bank paying $2.6 billion to get Uncle Sam off its back.  Attorney General Eric Holder and the DOJ will graciously end their probe into whether Morgan Stanley duped investors by telling them how very great their home loans were when in fact, they were anything but. This settlement is sure to put a major dent in MorganStanley’s 2014 profits. By major, I mean it’ll eat up nearly 50% of what MorganStanley got to take home in 2014. It officially lands Morgan Stanley on that illustrious list of banks who also had to shell out billion dollar settlements to the DOJ for their smarmy actions leading up to and during the 2008 financial crisis, including  – but not limited to –  Bank of America who reigns the top spot with a $16.7 billion payout. It’s followed by JPMorgan Chase which holds the number two spot for its $13 billion settlement. Citigroup rounds out the group with a $7 billion settlement.

Don’t stake this claim… 

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The number of people filing jobless claims went up. Not down. But up. The number climbed to 313,000 people instead of a projected 290,000. While the news is a bit of drag, economists  – who presumably know a thing or two  – are telling us that we can’t work ourselves up into a collective panic over one month’s lousy numbers. At least for now, anyway. First, the number of people filing those claims is still relatively close to the 300,000 mark. If it were way past that number, then yeah, having a fiscal freak out might be considered almost acceptable. Two, the labor market’s rockin’, sort of, and hiring is strong, which brings us to reason number three. Because hiring is strong, wages are actually going up. Walmart, TJ Maxx, Gap…the list goes on as to how many retailers are raising its employees’ wages. All these factors allow us to almost ignore this fiscal hiccup. However, leave it to Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen to remind us that, “wage growth remains sluggish” and that there’s always room for improvement.  You don’t say.

Loser…

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Sears isn’t having a very good year. Actually it hasn’t had a good year in…well, many many years. It just reported its fourth straight year of losses with this quarter losing $159 million and $1.50 per share. Incidentally, that figure is not nearly as dismal as last year’s $358 million fourth quarter loss. So you see, there is a bright side. Sort of. Run by the The Hoffman Estates, which also runs Kmart, the company has tried just about everything to help the ailing retailer reverse its downward financial spiral. From store closures to slashing inventory, the retailer has tried countless ways to cut costs. The company closed over 230 stores in 2014 and today has over 1,700 stores, which sounds impressive. But you know what’s more impressive? The over 3,500 stores the company had five years ago. The latest plan is to spin off between 200-300 stores into a REIT, which stands for Real Estate investment trust, by the way. The idea is apparently going to allow the failing company to pick up some $2 billion and help turn the fiscal tide. But if you want to know how exactly that works you’re on your own.

Breach of Staples; McBummer Earnings; Coke’s Earnings Fizzing Out

You can’t take my stapler…

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Now let us welcome Staples into the not-so-exclusive-ranks of the breached – data breached, that is. The world’s largest office supply supplier becomes the latest corporate cyber-attack victim. The company is currently conducting an investigation after banks began noticing a strange pattern of fraudulent activity among a specific group of consumers, presumably ones who have swiped their plastic at Staples. Before Staples, Sears was making headlines for its data breach. But no word yet if this breach will be as epically huge as those that Home Depot and Target had to endure.

This meal’s not so happy…

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Despite its best efforts to wage breakfast wars and valiant campaigns against pink-slime infested meat, McDonald’s third quarter earnings had no beef to stand on. Revenue, shares and all those fiscal details that make up a Big Mac were nothing short of dismal with earnings tanking 30%. The fast food chain pulled in a $1.07 billion profit which might seem nice, at first. But when you consider that McDonald’s earned $1.52 billion a year earlier then it’s easy to see why the earnings were particularly McLousy. CEO Don Thompson also blamed “unusual events” in Europe and Asia for the bummer quarter. Perhaps he was referring to that pesky “expired meat” issue in China. Or maybe all that stuff with Russia. But let’s not forget to also point the finger at those Millennials who have the nerve to prefer healthier, higher-quality alternatives like those being offered up at Panera and Chipotle (which, by the way, had a really great quarter).

Cola’s going flat…

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Apparently not enough consumers are sharing a Coke as evidenced by Coa Cola’s just released earnings that seemed to have lost their bubbles. In fact, it’s lost the most in six years. Profits fizzed out 14% with net income down to $2.1 billion. A year ago people were still drinking Coca Cola to the net income tune of $2.4 billion. Revenue was but a mere $11.97 billion. Sounds like a lot, huh? Well, Wall Street would have preferred more. Like more than $2 billion.  So what gives? Apparently consumers are turning to healthier alternatives and Coca Cola is still in the midst of improving and expanding its healthier alternatives.

Hail to Retail, Janet Yellen’s In the Hot Seat and Lego’s Leg Up

A tale of retail….

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I’m guessing you did a lot of shopping in the last few months, huh?  No? Not you? Well somebody around you did.  Actually a lot of people around you did. A lot. Retail stocks shot up beating forecasters expectations.  Companies like Sears and JC Penney, which took some big hits in recent months, rebounded with better than expected earnings.  And Best Buy?  It’s like whoa! Up 7% as I write this. Sadly you weren’t feeling the love for Chico’s.  What’s that all about? It was the glaring exception to this upward trend whose shares dipped an unflattering 8% after disappointing earnings.  Yikes.

Everything’s coming up chilly…

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Arguably one of Wall Street’s biggest It people, Janet Yellen, took center stage today before the Senate and yes, she is a sensible central banker. Phew. Glad we got that out of the way.  And she thinks just like you do when you were surveyed by the consumer index, which, btw,  speaks volumes to both of yours intellect – namely that the economy is recovering. But darn be that chilly weather, she says, that keeps messing everything up (though it’s difficult to say just how much) – from the economy right on down to my very own driveway. Among her other important statements (none of which included anything about my driveway) she repeated the Fed’s promise to keep interest rates low as long as unemployment is still above 6.5%.  Does that make the situation a win/win or a no win?  Well that depends, I suppose on whether or not you are gainfully employed.

Go Go Lego…

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If you still haven’t seen The Lego Movie you’re missing out. But Lego’s not too worried.  While the toy flick stayed #1 at the box office for the last three weeks and continues to pull in some impressive digits worldwide, it’s their other brands like Chima and Lego Friends that has this toymaker pulling in about $4.65 billion in 2013.  And while those numbers are nothing to sneeze at (yes, that ended in a preposition and ironically I did just sneeze )  it’s still second to Mattel with its $7.1 billion worth of Barbies and Fisher Price line.