FeedPosted Nov 4th 2009 3:30PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: AutoZone Inc (AZO)
AutoZone Inc.'s stock (NYSE:
AZO) remains a bit of an enigma, hence for now, I'm placing a Hold on the company's shares, first recommended
on March 39, 2009 at a price of $163.40.
Auto parts chain AutoZone's forecast revenue growth for FY2010 of 4-6% is sufficient following a 4.5% gain in FY2009, including a 5.4% increase in same store sales in Q4. The headwinds are real: high U.S. gasoline prices that might delay purchases, but they are offset by long-term trends: more drivers maintaining older, used cars because they aren't able to purchase a new one.
Continue reading AutoZone: Hold shares
Posted Oct 8th 2009 12:20PM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, eBay (EBAY), Adobe Systems (ADBE), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Clorox Co (CLX), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Monster Worldwide (MNST), Analyst initiations, Broadcom Corp'A' (BRCM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Northrop Grumman (NOC)
Analyst upgrades:
- Deutsche Bank upgraded Clorox (NYSE: CLX) to Buy from Hold on valuation and believes upside to earnings forecasts is likely. The firm raised its target on shares to $66 from $65.
- Kaufman Bros. upgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) to Buy from Hold on expectations improved Marketplace fundamentals will serve as a positive catalyst for shares. The firm raised its price target on the stock to $29 from $22.
- Roth Capital believes Zumiez (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) is well positioned for improved results and margins. The firm, which upgraded shares to Buy from Hold and raised its target to $22 from $16, said September back-to-school results bode well for the holiday season and demonstrate that Zumiez can drive conversion during peak shopping periods.
- Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) was upgraded to Sell from Conviction Sell at Goldman.
- Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
- Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ADBE, AZO, EBAY, GS, NOC, WFC ...
Posted Oct 3rd 2009 10:00AM by Jim Woods (RSS feed)
Filed under: AutoZone Inc (AZO), Stocks to Buy
AutoZone (NYSE: AZO) is a specialty retailer and distributor of automotive replacement parts and accessories. Its stores offer the do-it-yourself car tech tremendous value on parts and accessories. The company stocks all kinds of parts and has a great sales staff. In my experience, their parts personnel have always been very knowledgeable and extremely helpful.
On Sept. 23, the company reported a 3% decline in its fiscal fourth-quarter profit. This decline in earnings could have been the result of the government's "cash for clunkers" plan, which saw many older vehicle owners turn in their cars for a credit toward the purchase of a new vehicle.
Continue reading Real bargain stock #1: AutoZone (AZO)
Posted Sep 26th 2009 1:10PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Automatic Data Proc (ADP), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Carnival Corp (CCL), ConAgra Foods (CAG), Costco Wholesale (COST), Research in Motion (RIMM), General Mills (GIS), Lowe's Cos (LOW), Lennar Corp'A' (LEN), Red Hat Inc (RHT), Activision Inc (ATVI), United Technologies (UTX), Rite Aid Corp (RAD), Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT)
Continue reading Earnings highlights: AutoZone, Carnival, CarMax, ConAgra, General Mills, RIM ...
Posted Sep 20th 2009 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, AutoZone Inc (AZO), ConAgra Foods (CAG), Research in Motion (RIMM), KB HOME (KBH), Economic data
Much of the focus this week will no doubt be on the FOMC meeting on interest rates and the subsequent decision, as well as on the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, were the agenda will include bonuses for bank executives among other things.
Things will be fairly quiet again on the earnings front as the next earnings season has yet to ramp up. However, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters do have high hopes for a handful of companies that will release results this week.
Continue reading The week in preview: Eye on AutoZone, ConAgra, KB Home, Research In Motion ...
Posted Jun 9th 2009 3:30PM by Beth Gaston Moon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Consumer experience, AutoZone Inc (AZO), Business of sports
"Take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the crowd ... Buy me some peanuts and ... tofu dogs?"
Several years ago, if you were a baseball fan and a vegetarian, you were practically out of luck, left to dine on nachos, French fries, and the occasional cotton candy. But as we are becoming a less carnivorous society, some ballparks are choosing to adapt, adding veggie-friendly items to their menus.
Last week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released its
list of the top 10 vegetarian ballparks. Making the list were Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies, as well as
AT&T (NYSE:
T) Park, where the San Francisco Giants play, and Atlanta's Turner Field - home of the Brave(s).
Continue reading Fifth Third, AutoZone ballparks named vegetarian-friendly
Posted May 30th 2009 12:10PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Dell (DELL), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Tiffany and Co (TIF), Costco Wholesale (COST), Staples Inc (SPLS), Marvell Technology Group (MRVL), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: AutoZone, Costco, Dell, Heinz, Staples, Tiffany, Tivo and more
Posted May 24th 2009 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Industry, AutoZone Inc (AZO)
After the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, the earnings spotlight turns to Canadian banks: Bank of Montreal (NYSE: BMO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (NYSE: CM), Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY), and Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD) are all scheduled to report their second-quarter results.
While banks north of the border of generally have held up better than their U.S. counterparts, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the four listed above to report that earnings declined between 20% and 30% since the same period of last year. All four have P/E ratios around 10, and they are paying dividends. Shares of all four have surged 50% to 83% in the past three months, but are still 26% to 38% lower than a year ago.
Continue reading The week in preview: Canadian and U.S. banks, and more
Posted Apr 20th 2009 10:30AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: PepsiCo (PEP), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Walgreen Co (WAG), Citigroup Inc. (C), Target Corp. (TGT), Brinker Intl (EAT), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), American Express (AXP), AutoNation Inc (AN), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Centex Corp (CTX), Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW), Kellogg Co (K), Hershey Co (HSY), Sears Holdings (SHLD), CVS Corp (CVS), Gap Inc (GPS), General Mills (GIS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Yum Brands (YUM), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Johnson Controls (JCI), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN), Unilever ADR (UL), Jones Apparel Group (JNY), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Recession, E*TRADE (ETFC)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is seeing signs of a coming boom, but he's still being cautious here. If you had to define the early cycle, if you had to outline what stocks should be soaring coming out of a recession into a boom and which ones should be faltering, you would have to say the action in this market in the last month is the quintessential behavioral pattern.
What are the components of the early cycle? First, it's the homebuilders. As is typical coming out of a recession, the stocks precede the bottom of housing. That's exactly what's happening with the lowest permits and highest affordability and best mortgage rates and massive inventory. Everywhere, except on Wall Street reporting, the bottom is bursting out. When you read the lead story in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and it is all about the thousands of prospective homebuyers heading south to pick up condos and homes for half of what they were worth two years ago -- or even less -- and you know that virtually no one has broken ground in the Sunshine State in a year, you can bet that the bottom's actually behind us. This housing market has wiped out all but the most stable private builders and even the public ones are merging as we know from
Pulte (NYSE:
PHM) (
Cramer's Take) and
Centex (NYSE:
CTX) (
Cramer's Take). So, in the next cycle, you can see some profitability developing year over year even though the new homes don't have much margin because the foreclosed homes next door are going for a song. And don't believe this won't change the dynamic of future foreclosures. In most areas, rent is higher than the interest on mortgages, so you will find that second or third job needed to stay in your home. The incentive structure's radically different than a year ago.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The seductive pull of the early cycle
Posted Apr 2nd 2009 11:10AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Amazon.com (AMZN), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Black and Decker (BDK), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Analyst initiations, Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
Analyst upgrades:
- Citigroup upgraded Abbott Lab (NYSE: ABT) to Hold from Sell on valuation following the stock's recent underperformance. The firm maintains a $48 price target.
- Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Pepsi Bottling (NYSE: PBG) and Dr. Pepper Snapple (NYSE: DPS) to Buy from Hold as they believe carbonated soft drinks market is showing signs of stabilization. The firm raised its price target on Pepsi Bottling to $28 from $25 and on Dr. Pepper Snapple to $22 from $20.
- Baird upgraded CommScope (NYSE: CTV) to Outperform from Neutral and raised their target to $19 from $10 as they expect fundamentals to bottom in Q1 and ramp strongly in Q2 as wireless capex outlook improves.
- Sinopec Shanghai (NYSE: SHI) was raised to Buy from Sell at Goldman.
- TRW Automotive (NYSE: TRW) was upgraded at JP Morgan to Neutral from Underweight.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ABT, DPS, BDK, AMZN, GS ...
Posted Mar 30th 2009 3:40PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: AutoZone Inc (AZO), Stocks to Buy

The U.S. stock market remains highly selective: select the wrong stock, and there's a 30-40% haircut up ahead; select the correct stock, and you're positioned for the recovery with modest downside exposure. And with the above in mind,
AutoZone (NYSE:
AZO) is worth a review.
AutoZone represents a good example of a defensive/growth hybrid -- a rare combination. The defensive aspect is its auto parts business for do-it-yourself auto repair enthusiasts, known as the aftermarket: the recession means more American motorists will perform selected, preventative maintenance themselves. The growth aspect involves AZO's likely addition of 200 new stores to its 4,100-store base.
Continue reading AutoZone is well-positioned for the car maintenance era
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