Top 10 Retail Stocks To Invest In 2015

Top 10 Retail Stocks To Invest In 2015: Foot Locker Inc (FL)

Foot Locker, Inc., incorporated on April 7, 1989, is a global retailer of shoes and apparel, operating 3,335 primarily mall-based stores in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand as of February 2, 2013. The Company operates in two segments: Athletic Stores and Direct-to-Customers. The Athletic Stores segment is an athletic footwear and apparel retailer whose formats include Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Footaction, and CCS. The Direct-to-Customers segment includes Footlocker.com, Inc. and other affiliates, including Eastbay, Inc. and CCS, which sell to customers through Internet websites, mobile devices, and catalogs. In September 2013, the Company acquired Runners Point Warenhandels GmbH (Runners) from Hannover Finanz GmbH.

Athletic Stores

Foot Locker is a global athletic footwear and apparel retailer. Its stores offer the products manufactured primarily by the athletic brands. Foot Locker offers products for a variety of activities, including basketball, running, and training. Additionally, the Company operates 65 House of Hoops, primarily a shop-in-shop concept, which sells basketball inspired products. Foot Locker's 1,883 stores are located in 23 countries, including 1,072 in the United States, Puerto Rico, United States Virgin Islands, and Guam, 129 in Canada, 590 in Europe, and a combined 92 in Australia and New Zealand. The domestic stores have an average of 2,300 selling square feet and the international stores have an average of 1,500 selling square feet. Lady Foot Locker is a United States retailer of athletic footwear, apparel, and accessories for active women. Its stores carry athletic footwear and apparel brands, as well as casual wear and an assortment of apparel designed for a variety of activities, including running, walking, training, a! nd fitness. In November 2012, the Company announced the introduction of a new banner named SIX:02. T his new banner is an elevated retail concept featuring brand! s in fitness apparel and athletic footwear for women. Lady Foot Locker and SIX:02 operate 300 and 3 stores, and are located in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. These stores have an average of 1,300 selling square feet.

The Company's Kids Foot Locker is a national children's athletic retailer that offers a selection of brand-name athletic footwear, apparel and accessories for children. Its stores feature an environment geared to appeal to both parents and children. Its 305 stores are located in the United States, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Europe, and Canada. These stores have an average of 1,400 selling square feet. Footaction is a national athletic footwear and apparel retailer. Its 283 stores are located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico and focus on marquee footwear and branded apparel. The Footaction stores have an average of 2,900 selling square feet. Champs Sports is a mall-based speci alty athletic footwear and apparel retailers in North America. Its product categories include athletic footwear and apparel, and sport-lifestyle inspired accessories. Its 539 stores are located throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Champs Sports stores have an average of 3,500 selling square feet. As of February 2, 2013, the Company operated 22 stores in the United States.

Direct-to-Customers

The Company's Direct-to-Customers segment is multi-branded and multi-channeled. This segment sells, through its affiliates, directly to customers through its Internet websites, mobile devices, and catalogs. The Direct-to-Customers segment operates the Websites for eastbay.com, final-score.com, eastbayteamservices.com, ccs.com, as well as Websites aligned with the brand names of its store banners (f! ootlocker! .com, ladyfootlocker.com, kidsfootlocker.com, footaction.com, and champssports.com). Eastbay is a direct marketer in the United States, providing the high sch! ool athle! te with a sports solution, including athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, team licensed, and private-label merchandise. CCS serves the needs of the 12-20 year old seeking an authentic board lifestyle shop. CCS is anchored in skate but appealing to the surrounding board culture. The CCS format offers board lifestyle merchandise that will fit the needs of the customer all year long and stocks a selection of both core and lifestyle brands. The retail store operations of CCS are included in the Athletic Stores segment.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By abirk] retailer of shoes and apparel, operating 3,473 primarily mall-based stores (including 193 Runners Point Group stores) in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

  Headquartered in New York City, Foot Locker is an athletic footwear and apparel retailer. To improve overall performance in the long-run, the company has undertaken several initiatives.

  Results Recently

  Quarterly earnings have notched up for the last 15 years. Per-share earnings in the first quarter ending May 3 jumped 22% to $1.11 a share. Total revenue was up 14% to nearly $1.9 billion and same-store sales in the quarter advanced 7.6%.

  Sneakers have also been fueling sales at Kids Foot Locker, which has shown mid-teen to 20% growth the past few quarters. Globally, sales have been strong in European markets. Foot Locker acquired Runners Point to gain exposure to the German market. The acquisition is already proving to be a worthwhile one as the division saw a 14% gain in sales.

  Over the past four years, Foot Locker has seen its net income grow by 727.1% from $48 million to $397 million. This made Foot Locker gain a better position. FL's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.05 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that ther! e has bee! n successful management of debt levels.

  The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. Apart from delivering strong top-line and bottom-line growth, the company is also known for its shareholder-friendly moves. In fiscal year 2013, the company bought back 6.4 million shares worth $229 million, which includes 1.6 million shares repurchased in the fourth quarter.

  Management hiked the quarterly dividend by 10% and approved capex of $220 million for the year 2014.

  Over the past 5 years Foot Locker has been an incredible comeback story. Shares have now climbed nearly 14x in value since the bottom in 2009.

  What to Expect

• [By Myra Ramdenbourg]

  Foot Locker Inc. (FL): EVP and CFO Lauren B Peters sold 25,000 Shares

  On 07/10/2014, EVP and CFO Lauren B Peters sold 25,000 shares at an average price of $50.75. The price of the stock has decreased by 1.52% since. Foot Locker Inc. has a market cap of $7.23 billion and its shares were traded at around $49.98. The company has a P/E ratio of 16.40 and P/S ratio of 1.11 with a dividend yield of 1.64%. Over the past 10 years, Foot Locker Inc. had an annual average earnings growth of 6.30%.

• [By Rich Bieglmeier]

  [Related -Foot Locker, Inc. (FL) Q4 Earnings Preview: Back To Its Winning Ways?]

  Sales, like earnings, are expected move ahead, jumping forward by 9.3% year-over-year (YoY). Foot Locker's consensus revenue estimate for Q4 is $1.79 billion, which is more than last year's $1.64 billion.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]
  Records fell on Wall Street Friday as another solid report on housing lifted the market for the second day in a row. There's a three-day weekend coming up -- something that often prompts investor caution -- but the gains were broad-based even though volume was fairly light. The VIX, which measures volatility, fell to its lowest level this year. The Dow Jones industrial average (^DJI) g! ained 63 ! points, the Nasdaq composite (^IXIC) rose 31, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index (^GPSC) added 8, topping the record high set last week. The Dow Transportation average also raced to an all-time high, lifted by airline stocks. United (UAL) soared more than 4 percent; Delta (DAL) gained more than 1 percent and Southwest (LUV) gained 2 percent. Southwest is at an all-time high, up 79 percent from a year ago. New home sales bounced back with a better than expected 6.4 percent increase last month. Lennar (LEN) and D.R. Horton (DHI) both rose 4 percent. Pulte (PHM), Beazer (BZH) and Hovnanian (HOV) also solid posted gains. Earnings continue to drive retail stocks. Gap (GPS) edged higher even though net fell. Foot Locker (FL) gained 1½ percent after topping expectations. GameStop (GME) rose 4 percent. Its net rose, helped by the rollout last year of new Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Zumiez (ZUMZ) rose 5½ percent on an earnings beat. But Aeropostale (ARO) tumbled 24 percent. Its loss widened and sales declined. The retailer continues to struggle with teen fashion trends. Also on the earnings front, TiVo (TIVO) rose 2 percent as it swung to a profit from a year ago loss. It also reported an increase in the number of subscribers. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) rose 6 percent on news the company plans to eliminate up to 16,000 additional workers in an effort to cut costs. And several stocks extended big moves from yesterday. Best Buy (BBY) rose more than 3 percent for the second straight day after earnings beat expectations. Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS) jumped

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-retail-stocks-to-invest-in-2015.html