Target gives Canadian chief the cold shoulder, Dick's stock sliced on poor golf sales, TJX shares 'discounted'
Welcome to Trending Tickers: The retail carnage edition -- for Tuesday May 20th. In early trading the seven biggest slides in the S&P 500 (^GSPC) all belong to retailers. So making the list of trending tickers today are:
Target (TGT) - Shares of the retailer are off more than a percent on news that, just a week after the departure of CEO Gregg Steinhafel, the embattled president of the Canadian division, Tony Fisher, is out as well. The Minneapolis-based company has opened 100 stores in the land of maple leaves but high prices and problems keeping stores stocked kept the roll-oot in the great white north from taking off, eh. Target is set to report earnings tomorrow morning and, based on what we've seen over the last few weeks, it's going to be a bloodbath. It will going to be tough to embrace a turnaround until the company gets new CEO in place and none of the guys who built the chain are going to be walking through the door.
Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS) - Shares of the sporting goods store are getting sliced by nearly 16% after the company cut it's outlook for the year. Central to the move were weaknesses in golf and hunting sales. Dick's Chief, Edward Stack was particularly brutal in regards to the golf industry saying core golfers don't understand the new technology. Dicks has made a huge commitment to the sport, having purchased Golf Galaxy in 2006 and Top-Flite brand balls in 2012. "We don't know where the bottom is in golf," said Stack, "the industry has some serious issues."
TJX Companies (TJX) - The discount retailer is seeing its shares smacked by more than 5% after reporting first quarter earnings of $0.64, three cents short of expectations. TJX also "tightened it's range" for the current quarter and the entire year, saying it expects to make between $3.05 and $3.17 for the full year. Analysts were looking for $3.20. As a well-run off-priced retailer TJX might be the most disturbing story on an ugly day for retail. It's the second quarter in a row the once reliable chain has come up short. To paraphrase Warren Buffett, when good management meets a bad business environment only the latter emerges with its reputation intact. Blame the weather if you want but the American consumer continues to disappoint despite a supposedly improving economy. Draw your own conclusions.
Those are you trending tickers today - we'll see you back here tomorrow.
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