Eq: Value (90)
(New York)
Morgan Stanley says the big gains in travel stocks are way overblown and will likely prove dangerous to investors. Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian have all seen their shares rise in the double digits recently as investors have grown increasingly optimistic about their prospects and their cash reserves. However, Morgan Stanley threw cold water on those sentiments, saying “The cruise industry will take longer than almost any other form of travel to return to normal” as it downgraded the stocks to Underweight (two of them were already Underweight). UBS also pointed out that there will likely be no meaningful cruise activity until next year.
FINSUM: Even once cruises get running again, all it will take is one minor flourish of COVID—and the associated news cycle—for the whole sector to freeze up again. Too risky to invest in at this point.
Investing in Coronavirus-era Retail Couldn’t Be Easier
Written by FINSUM
(New York)
The stock market may be complicated right now, but some things are abundantly clear. One of those is how the retail sector, and retail stocks in general, are going to react to the crisis. The answer is that big players are going to continue to grow, largely at the expense of smaller retailers. Bigger companies, with sophisticated websites and massive free shipping operations, have been thriving as small companies falter.
FINSUM: Think Amazon and Walmart, maybe Shopify (see other story about Shopify from today), as these companies will be the ones winning orders from customers over the short and long-term.
(Detroit)
There has been a lot of gloom for the auto industry lately. With showrooms and dealerships almost completely shut, car buying has dropped off a cliff, leaving auto companies sitting on big inventories with little demand. However, early signs from China and Europe are showing that the lockdown may have led to pent up demand for cars. In one sense, there is natural pent up demand from the closure of dealerships, but more interestingly, there seems to be more demand than usual. This is because people are growingly afraid of public transportation—in some cases governments are warning against using public transit . This means people are seeking the relative safety of traveling in their own vehicles.
FINSUM: This idea of surplus demand for private vehicles because of fear of the virus makes perfect sense. Auto stocks undervalued?
(Seattle)
The biggest aircraft maker in the country just put out a dire prediction (although not a surprising one)—that there will be a major airline bankruptcy this year. The airline industry has been wounded as never before, with demand falling more than 90% since this time last year. Most analysts think it will take until the end of year for demand to even rise to 50% of the year prior. Credit default swaps—a proxy for the odds a company will default—are very high right now. For instance, markets are putting a 54% chance that American Airlines defaults.
FINSUM: This is an odd comment from a company that is talking about its biggest clients. It speaks volumes.
(Detroit)
Auto stocks have been wounded badly by the COVID lockdown. Car sales have plummeted as buyers do not go to dealerships, test drive etc. The future is not looking great either, as a long recession could crimp consumer spending and hit auto companies where it hurts most—on higher margin large vehicles (like SUVs). Interestingly though, a major Ford insider, COO Jim Farley, just picked up $1m of shares in the embattled company. It was his first open market purchase since at least 2007.
FINSUM: This is a really strong signal from a guy who has been with the company for some time.
(Atlanta)
If you have any hope for a quick airline recovery post-coronavirus, take that idea, crumple it into a little ball and throw it away. The reality of air travel’s recovery is looking bleaker by the week. On the one hand, additional safety measures are going to be necessity for a long time—and they will be costly. Extra screening, spacing out passengers etc all have significant costs. Additionally, many airlines will have to forego middle seating to create adequate distance between passengers, cutting down on capacity. All of this will come as demand for air travel remains low in the short-term and secularly weaker in the long-term. For instance, business travel for meetings, conferences etc all looks likely to be very slow to recover because companies don’t want to put their workers in harm’s way. Videoconferencing has also proven very effective.
FINSUM: There is likely to be a big clearing out of weaker airlines and several years of losses/less profit for larger ones.
(New York)
So who is going to benefit most in the inevitable reopening of the economy? It is a tricky question to sort out. The most obvious companies are already seeing very stretched valuations, so those probably aren’t a good buy. Accordingly, here are some interesting names to look at in a category Goldman Sachs is calling “quality-at-a-reasonable-price”: Texas Instruments, Facebook, Mastercard, Alphabet, Home Depot, Ross Stores, Colgate-Palmolive.
FINSUM: Nice range of names. On the tech side, we love Facebook and Google. They are going to make more and more money as this lockdown accelerates the shift to ecommerce. On the retail side, discount stores like Ross seem like a good bet.
(New York)
In a topic that wreaks of moral hazard, private equity firms are increasingly the beneficiaries of government bailout funds. The situation is similar to the Crisis-era bailout of Chrysler, which was owned by Cerberus Capital Management. The Financial Times summed up the situation best, saying “Should they use government money to support companies whose deep-pocketed private equity owners have often thinned out their balance sheets and left the slimmest financial cushion?”, continuing with a quote from a professor at Oxford, “We cannot have a world in which one can borrow to earn more and pay little taxes if things go up and when things go down then the taxpayer comes to the rescue”.
FINSUM: Private equity will probably get more bailout money as this lockdown rolls on, but the Democrats will surely attach a lot of strings to it.
(New York)
The outlook for retail is bleak. Investors already know this, but separating those who might actually go bust from those who will muddle through is key. The US’ big stimulus package had little directly for retailers, but there is enough to throw them a lifeline. According to analysts 630,000 US retailers have had to shut their doors since Coronavrus erupted. Larger companies have responded by furloughing staff, delaying obligations, and tapping revolving credit lines. The retailers most at risk seem to be the mall-based chains that focus on clothing—who were already struggling against ecommerce. Think J.Crew, Neiman Marcus, other department stores etc.
FINSUM: Our team has considerable experience in retail, and in our view the coronavirus will be looked back on as the coffin nail in brick and mortar retail (especially for clothing). This lockdown is going to accelerate the shift to ecommerce, and brick and mortar shopping habits may be permanently reduced.
Airline Stocks Plummet as Coronavirus Hits Europe
Written by FINSUM
(New York)
We have ben warning for weeks that as the coronavirus continued to spread, airline and other travel stocks would continue to be wounded (and likely not recover soon). That is happening n a big way today as news of a quarantine in Italy sent markets into a panic about the spread of the disease beyond China. Cruise ships and airline stocks are taking body blows as a result, with Delta and American down 7% and 10% respectively.
FINSUM: These are massive losses, and the worst part about it is that there is unlikely to be a “V” shaped recovery in these sectors, as it will take some time for the public’s fear of the virus (and thus travel) to wane even after things start to get better.
More...
Stocks Where You Don’t Choose Between Growth and Value
Written by FINSUM
(New York)
Many are currently having trouble choosing between growth and value stocks. On the one hand, growth stocks look outrageously expensive, yet have momentum on their side, while value stocks look like a great buy because of their discount compared to the market. However, there are a handful of stocks where you get the best of both. These stocks have both growth and value characteristics. Here are some of the diverse names to look at: General Motors, State Street, Marathon Petroleum, H&R Block, and Qualcomm.
FINSUM: If you can get good earnings growth and strong value in the same package, what is not to like?
These Two Sectors Will Be Hammered by Coronavirus
Written by FINSUM
(New York)
Coronavirus fears continue to stalk markets. Just when it seems like it might be getting better, more news comes out to hurt markets. With that in mind, there are three sectors investors need to avoid because they will likely not recover from coronavirus for quite some time. Travel and tourism stocks are the main ones to avoid. Large US airlines have canceled all flights to the Chinese mainland until March and so far the estimate is that 13 million flights have been canceled. Cruse ships and other stocks that cater to tourists (even luxury retailers) are also likely to stay hurt for some time. Consider that even when the immediate panic over the virus dissipates, attitudes may have change and travel may not immediately recover.
FINSUM: We think the idea of behaviors changing is quite a valid one. For instance, one of the big worries within the Chinese stock market is that people may not continue to eat at restaurants because of general fears about infection.
(New York)
There has been a lot of speculation over the last year that FedEx might be a buyout target. This time last year, everyone thought Amazon would buy the logistics company to beef up its own network. That did not happen. Now the speculation is that it might be on Warren Buffett’s list. Buffett has expressed that he is itching to make an “elephant-sized” acquisition, and FedEx fits the bill in more ways than one. Not only is it huge, but it has a more than $125 bn hoard of cash. Buffett likes simple businesses with good management and large moats, or barriers to entry which prevent competition. FedEx fits the bill perfectly.
FINSUM: This feels like a match made in heaven. Both parties refuse to comment. Hmmmm…
Goldman Says 2020 Will Be the Year of GARP Stocks
Written by FINSUM
(New York)
So which stock will lead the way in 2020. Many are of two minds about this question. One the one hand, growth stocks look so pricey that value seems to have a good chance of taking the lead; but on the other, growth has been dominating for so long that it is hard to imagine such stocks not leading. Goldman Sachs say the middle road, or GARP (growth at a reasonable price) stocks, will be the big winners, as they have characteristics of both groups. “During periods of very strong or accelerating growth, investors embrace the risk of low valuation stocks because even lower quality stocks can successfully generate [earnings] growth in rapid GDP growth environments”, says David Kostin, chief US equity strategist at Goldman. Take Google for instance, which trades at 26x earnings, which is only in the 56th percentile for the communications sector, but has strong earnings growth characteristics. Other names to look at include Estee Lauder, MGM Resorts, and Lockheed Martin.
FINSUM: Interesting thesis and we like it in principal. Our issue is that investors just don’t seem to care about price right now.