The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) reported fourth fiscal quarter and full-year 2013 earnings after markets closed Thursday. For the quarter, the entertainment giant posted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.77 on revenues of $11.57 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $0.68 on revenues of $10.78 billion.Fourth-quarter results compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.76 and $11.4 billion in revenues.
For the full year, adjusted EPS totaled $3.39 on revenues of $45.04. The consensus estimate had called for EPS of $3.38 on revenues of $44.87 billion.
For the quarter, revenues rose in each of the company�� five operating segments, with a jump of 14% in the consumer products segment and a doubling of revenues in the interactive segment.
The story was not as positive in operating income, where the media networks segment showed a decline of 8% year-over-year. Cable networks were down 7% and broadcasting was down 18%. Broadcasting income was hit by an unfavorable comparison on syndication sales and higher marketing costs for the company�� fall season. ABC, the broadcast network, also spent more on primetime programming, replacing inexpensive reality shows with more costly original programming.
Skullcandy, Inc., incorporated on May 20, 2005, is a designer, marketer and distributor of performance audio and gaming headphones and other accessory related products under the Skullcandy, Astro Gaming and 2XL by Skullcandy brands. The Company's products are sold and distributed through a variety of channels in the United States and approximately 80 countries worldwide. The Company is engaged in the distribution of headphones in specialty retailers focused on action sports and the youth lifestyle, such as Zumiez, Tilly�� and hundreds of independent snow, skate and surf retailers. It distributes through consumer electronics, mass, sporting goods and mobile phone retailers, such as Best Buy, Target, Dick�� Sporting Goods and AT&T Wireless. Skullcandy products are also sold through its Website.
The Company�� product line include dB Collecti; Mobility Collectio, which targets mobile channel with product features designed to work on cell phones and smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone, and 2XL, which represents traditional sports, motor sports and hip-hop and rock and roll music. The Company sponsors athletes, disc jockeys (DJs), musicians, artists and events within all areas of action sports and the indie and hip-hop music genres. Through its Websites, skullcandy.com, skullcandy.tv, ca.skullcandy.com, eu.skullcandy.com, uk.skullcandy.com, 2xl.com, astrogaming.com, astrogaming.co.uk and astrogaming.fr listen to music by its sponsored artists, read blog updates on events, athletes, DJs, musicians and artists, and shop for Skullcandy and Astro Gaming products.
The Company competes with Sony, JVC, Bose, Beats by Dr. Dre, Nixon, adidas, Incase, Urbanears, Monster Cable Products, Sol Republic, iFrogz,Nike and Sennheiser.
Advisors' Opinion: Hot Consumer Companies To Watch For 2014: China Xiniya Fashion Limited(XNY)
China Xiniya Fashion Limited engages in the design and manufacture of men?s business casual and business formal apparel and accessories. It offers business casual apparel, including jackets, pants, shirts, T-shirts, sweaters, and overcoats; business formal apparel comprising suits, business pants, and dress shirts; and accessories consisting of ties, bags, belts, and shoes. The company sells its products under the Xiniya brand name to distributors and department store chains in the People?s Republic of China. China Xiniya Fashion Limited was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Jinjiang, the People?s Republic of China.
Advisors' Opinion: Hot Consumer Companies To Watch For 2014: Rite Aid Corp (RAD)
Rite Aid Corporation, incorporated in 1968, is a retail drugstore chain in the United States. As of March 3, 2012, the Company operated drugstores in 31 states across the country and in the District of Columbia. As of March 3, 2012, it operated 4,667 stores. In the Company�� stores, it sells prescription drugs and a range of other merchandise, which it calls front end products. During the fiscal year ended March 3, 2012 (fiscal 2012), prescription drug sales accounted for 68.1% of its total sales. The Company carries a range of front end products, which accounted for 31.9% of its total sales in fiscal 2012. Front end products include over-the-counter medications, health and beauty aids, personal care items, cosmetics, household items, beverages, convenience foods, greeting cards, seasonal merchandise and other everyday and convenience products, as well as photo processing. It offers a variety of products under its private brands, which contributed approximately 17% of its front end sales in the categories where private brand products were offered in fiscal 2012. As of March 3, 2012, the Company had opened over 2,100 GNC stores-within-Rite Aid-stores. During fiscal 2012, the Company sold two owned operating stores to independent third parties.
During fiscal 2012, its stores filled approximately 295 million prescriptions and served an average of 2.1 million customers per day. The overall average size of each store in its chain is approximately 12,600 square feet. As of March 3, 2012, 60% of its stores were freestanding; 51% of its stores included a drive-thru pharmacy; 24% included one-hour photo shops, and 46% included a GNC store-within-Rite Aid-store. The Company�� customers may also order prescription refills over the Internet through www.riteaid.com, or over the phone through its telephonic automated refill systems for pick up at a Rite Aid store. It has a strategic alliance with GNC, a retailer of vitamin and mineral supplements.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Muhammad Bazil]
Companies like J.C. Penney (JCP) on their way to recovery through turnaround initiatives often pose two challenges to investors. It�� either the turnaround leads to a costly adventure and loss of investors��hard earned money or it brings enormous profit to investors who had the courage to make the right bets. J.C. Penney is a retail company on the verge of booking increases on its top line if consumer spending continues to improve into holiday and back-to-school seasons ahead. With the turnaround stepsbeing taking so far by JCP, the retail company now falls into the same category with Best Buy (BBY) and Rite Aid (RAD) but while Best Buy and Rite Aid retails technology products and drugs respectively, JCP retails family apparel, footwear accessories, home furnishings, and a range of beauty products through its departmental stores across the U.S.
- [By John Divine]
While there are many others, Rite Aid's (NYSE: RAD ) stock is particularly ill-suited for a comparison against the Dow's performance. The drug store, with a market cap just above $7 billion, is less than a quarter of the size of the Dow's smallest component. But Rite Aid investors are doing just fine without the Dow to serve as a constant comparison. Shares jumped 5.6% today as last month's same-store sales increased a booming 7.5% month over month, driven by revenue from its pharmacy. With increasing competition from other drugstores to recruit recurring pharmacy customers via techniques like loyalty programs, the longer-term concern is whether Rite Aid's slim margins can hold up or not.
Hot Consumer Companies To Watch For 2014: Suedzucker Mannheim Ochsenfurt AG (SZU)
Suedzucker Mannheim Ochsenfurt AG is a Germany-based company engaged in the processing of agricultural raw materials. The Company is organized, along with its subsidiaries, into four segments: the Sugar segment comprises sugar production and the agricultural division; the Special Products segment includes the activities of four divisions: BENEO, which produces and sells ingredients made from natural raw materials for food products and animal feed; the Freiberger Group is a producer of chilled and frozen pizzas, frozen pasta dishes and snacks; the PortionPack Europe group specializes in portion packs, and the starch division comprises starch companies in Hungary and Romania, bio-ethanol production in Austria and Hungary, as well as starch production facilities in Austria; the CropEnergies segment includes the bio-ethanol activities of the Company in Germany, Belgium and France, and the Fruit segment comprises the fruit juice preparations and fruit juice concentrates divisions.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Jonathan Morgan]
Volkswagen AG (VOW), Europe�� biggest automaker, climbed 3.7 percent as data showed European car sales increased for the first time in 19 months in April. Suedzucker AG (SZU) dropped to an eight-month low as J&E Davy Holdings Ltd. downgraded the shares.
Hot Consumer Companies To Watch For 2014: First Cash Financial Services Inc (FCFS)
First Cash Financial Services, Inc., incorporated on April 24, 1994, is an operator of retail-based pawn and consumer finance stores in the United States and Mexico. As of February 18, 2013 , the Company had approximately 829 locations twelve states in United States and 24 states in Mexico. The Company's primary business is the operation of pawn stores, which engage in retail sales, purchasing of secondhand goods and consumer finance activities. The pawn stores generate retail sales from the merchandise acquired through collateral forfeitures and over-the-counter purchases from customers. Pawn stores are also a convenient source for small consumer loans to help customers meet their short-term cash needs. Personal property, such as jewelry, consumer electronics, tools, sporting goods and musical instruments are pledged as collateral for the loans. In addition, some of the Company's pawn stores offer consumer loans or credit services products.
In March 2012, the Company acquired three Dallas-area pawn stores. In June 2012, the Company acquired 24 pawn stores located in the states of Colorado (13), Kentucky (seven), Wyoming (three) and Nebraska (one). In June 2013, First Cash Financial Services Inc announced the acquisition of 19 format U.S. pawn stores located in Texas.
Pawn Merchandise Sales
The Company's pawn merchandise sales are primarily retail sales to the general public from its pawn stores. The items retailed are primarily used consumer electronics, jewelry, household appliances, tools, musical instruments, and sporting goods. The Company also melts down certain quantities of scrap jewelry and sells the gold, silver and diamonds in commodity markets.
The Company acquires pawn merchandise inventory primarily through forfeited pawn collateral and, to a lesser extent, through purchases of used goods directly from the general public. Merchandise acquired by the Company through forfeited pawn collateral is carried in inventory at the amount of the ! related pawn loan, exclusive of any accrued service fees. The Company does not provide financing to customers for the purchase of its merchandise, but does permit its customers to purchase merchandise on an interest-free layaway plan. Should the customer fail to make a required payment, the item is returned to inventory and previous payments are forfeited to the Company. Interim payments from customers on layaway sales are credited to deferred revenue and subsequently recorded as income in which final payment is received or when previous payments are forfeited to the Company.
Pawn Lending Activities
The Company's pawn stores make small loans to their customers in order to help them meet short-term cash needs. All pawn loans are collateralized by personal property such as jewelry, electronic equipment, household appliances, tools, sporting goods and musical instruments. Pawn loans are non-recourse loans and the pledged goods provide the only security to the Company for the repayment of the loan. At the time a pawn transaction is entered into, an agreement, commonly referred to as a pawn ticket, is delivered to the borrower for signature that sets forth, among other items, the name and address of the pawnshop, borrower's name, borrower's identification number from his/her driver's license or other identification, date, identification and description of the pledged goods, including applicable serial numbers, amount financed, pawn service fee, maturity date, total amount that must be paid to redeem the pledged goods on the maturity date, and the annual percentage rate. Pledged property is held through the term of the loan, unless the pawn is paid earlier or renewed. The typical loan term is generally one month plus an additional grace period (typically 30 to 90 days). The Company contracts for pawn loan fees and service charges as compensation for the use of the funds loaned and to cover direct operating expenses related to the transaction and holding the pledged property. These pa! wn loan f! ees and service charges accounted for approximately 26% of the Company's revenue from continuing operations during the year ended December 31, 2012 .
Credit Services and Consumer Loan Activities
The Company has significantly reduced its U.S.-based consumer loan activities, primarily from payday lending, over the past several years. In September 2012, the Company closed seven of its consumer loan stores located in the Texas cities of Austin and Dallas. The Company offers a fee-based credit services organization program (CSO Program) to assist consumers, in Texas markets, in obtaining extensions of credit. The Company's consumer loan and pawn stores in Texas offer the CSO Program, and, in Texas, credit services are also offered via an Internet platform. Under the CSO Program, the Company assists customers in applying for a short-term extension of credit from an independent, non-bank, consumer lending company (the Independent Lender) and issues the Independent Lender a letter of credit to guarantee the repayment of the extension of credit.
The Company subsequently collects a percentage of these bad debts by redepositing the customers' checks, ACH collections or subsequent cash repayments by the customers. The profitability of the Company's credit services operations is dependent upon adequate collection of these returned items. The Company also offers an automobile title lending product under the CSO Program. These credit services fees accounted for approximately 8% of the Company's revenue from continuing operations during 2012 . In Mexico, the Company also offers an installment loan product with a term of 365 days and bears weekly service fees of 7% on the loan amount. These consumer loan fees accounted for less than 1% of the Company's revenue from continuing operations during 2012 .
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Victor Selva]
We can appreciate that Capital One麓s ROE is lower than that of American Express, Discover Financial Services, First Cash Financial Services (FCFS) and Nelnet Inc. (NNI).
- [By Eric Volkman]
First Cash Financial Services (NASDAQ: FCFS ) is becoming a pawn star. The company announced it has acquired a set of 19 large-format pawn shops in Texas, most of which operate under the Valu + Pawn brand name. The price was around $70 million in cash, funded for the most part under the company's revolving credit facility.
Hot Consumer Companies To Watch For 2014: Wolverine World Wide Inc.(WWW)
Wolverine World Wide, Inc. designs, manufactures, sources, markets, licenses, and distributes branded footwear, apparel, and accessories. It offers industrial work shoes, boots, uniform shoes, outdoor sports footwear, rugged casual footwear, lifestyle footwear, sandals, and closed-toe products. It also provides outdoor apparel, and work and rugged casual apparel; and accessories, such as packs, bags, and luggage, as well as eyewear, gloves, handbags, socks, watches, and plush toys. The company offers its products under various brand names, including Bates, Cat Footwear, Chaco, Cushe, Harley-Davidson Footwear, Hush Puppies, HyTest, Merrell, Patagonia Footwear, Sebago, Soft Style, and Wolverine. It sells its products to a range of retail customers, which comprise department stores, national chains, catalogs, specialty retailers, mass merchants, Internet retailers, governments, and municipalities in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The company also markets its products in approximately 190 countries and territories through company-owned wholesale operations, licensees, and distributors. It also licenses its brands for use on non-footwear products. As of December 31, 2011, the company operated 101 retail stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom; and operated 42 consumer-direct Websites. Further, it markets pigskin leather, and purchases raw pigskins from other source. Wolverine World Wide, Inc. was founded in 1883 and is based in Rockford, Michigan.
Advisors' Opinion: - [By Michael Lewis]
Two of the biggest shoe companies available to investors, Deckers Outdoor (NASDAQ: DECK ) and Wolverine Worldwide (NYSE: WWW ) , have experienced great growth in recent periods, with the former posting a 20% stock gain on the day it released earnings last week. Both companies have made fantastic accretive brand purchases and renovations over the past year, and both should continue to grow at appealing rates. Unfortunately for investors, both also appear to be fully valued stocks. The question for investors going forward regards whether the companies' phenomenal successes can sustain the lofty valuations imparted by an ever-myopic market.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Wolverine World Wide (WWW) has gained 1.1% to $58.41 after it reported a profit of $1.16 a share, above forecasts for $1.02.
Tower Group International (TWGP) has plunged 28% to $5.35 after the insurance company increased the amount of cash it needed to set aside well above expectations and Fitch downgraded its credit rating.
- [By Dividends4Life]
Memberships and Peers: NKE is a member of the S&P 500 and a member of the Broad Dividend Achievers��Index. The company's peer group includes: Crocs Inc. (CROX) with a 0.0% yield, Deckers Outdoor Corporation (DECK) with a 0.0% yield and Wolverine World Wide Inc. (WWW) with a 0.4% yield.
- [By Ben Levisohn]
Shares of Deckers Outdoor have dropped 13% to $73.90, while Crocs (CROX) has gained 0.8% to $15.24, Steve Madden (SHOO) has dropped 0.1% to $36.52, Wolverine World Wide (WWW) has fallen 1.2% to $126.36 and Skechers (SKX) has fallen 1.6% to $33.82.
