By Timothy Kelheart
Disclaimer: Invest at your own risk and after you have conducted your own due diligence on stocks mentioned in this article.
With 4th quarter earnings depending on holiday sales it could be a good decision to hop on the band wagon before this spike in sales that drive up stock prices. Here are a few stocks that I am looking to increase my investments in.
Consumer confidence is higher than years past allowing us to expect consumers like you and I to open up our wallets and insert our chip cards to purchase and spend more than we did in the previous few years when people were less certain about the economy.
One of the big winners during the holiday season will be Amazon.com (AMZN) they will be able to increase sales during the holiday season with their big start on Cyber Monday. Shoppers already spend 50% of all online purchases on Amazon’s website marketplace which could rise even higher as more households in the US have Amazon Prime accounts than landline phones. While not increasing at a sharp rate, online shopping is steadily taking a greater percentage of sales away from physical stores.
To handle this increase in online shopping within the Western New York area, Amazon recently opened a new regional warehouse within the Buffalo suburb of Lancaster on Walden Ave. This warehouse will not only bring close to 500 jobs to the area but also increase Amazon members’ ability to get their orders faster than 2 day shipping with more items being held locally.
When you invest in stocks it is usually better to invest in opposing options not only to prevent losses through offsetting results but it typically guarantees a win with one of the many diversified stocks you choose.
One of the big box stores that you should invest in to offset Amazon is Target (TGT). Target has had their ups and downs this year and are close to returning to their starting stock price of the year of $72 per share. I can see their stock increasing over $72 after the holiday season as their stock tends to increase at the end of the year with the increase in sales and its increase of higher quality goods offered by this department chain.
Walmart (WMT) might not be a bad investment now that they have completely overhauled their online retail presence in a challenge towards Amazon. Walmart is offering free 2 day shipping as a clear challenge to the online marketplace juggernaut Amazon. This increase in online retail presence has to be attributed to Marc Lore their CEO of Walmart eCommerrce US who created Diapers.com, Soap.com and Jet.com which was acquired by Walmart in 2015.
As always buy low and sell high, and enjoy the profits to come!