CHICAGO, Nov. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks Equity Research highlights Sotheby's (NYSE:BID-Free Report) as the Bull of the Day and Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SBH-Free Report) as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq:GMCR-Free Report), Treehouse Foods (NYSE:THS-Free Report) and Starbucks (Nasdaq:SBUX-Free Report).
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Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:
Want to play the hot art market through stocks? Sotheby's (NYSE:BID-Free Report) is right in the middle of it. This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) is expected to post double digit earnings growth both in 2013 and 2014.
Sotheby's is the auction house that specializes in art auction, private sales and art-related financing activities. It operates in 40 countries and has 8 salesrooms including in New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris.
In business since 1744, it is also the oldest listed company on the New York Stock Exchange.
Contemporary art is hotter than even the old masters. Recently, Sotheby's held the largest auction in its history.
Andy Warhol's "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)", which was in private hands, was estimated with a pre-sale price in excess of $60 million. It ended up selling for a record for a Warhol at $105 million.
This is coming on the heels of Christie's record setting art auction, which saw Francis Bacon's "Three Studies of a Lucien Freud" sell for $142.4 million, a record for a single artwork.
But it's not just limited to art. Sotheby's also auctioned "The Pink Star", a 59.6 carat pink diamond, at a gem auction in Geneva. It had a pre-sale estimate of $60 million and sold for $83 million, a record for a gemstone at auction.
Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:SBH-Free Report) is still seeing soft traffic in its U.S. retail stores. This Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) recently missed on the earnings estimate for the 4th quarter in a row.
Sally Beauty sells beauty supplies at 4,500 stores around the world. It offers 6,000 products for hair, skin and nails. It also sells 9,800 professionally branded beauty products through its Beauty Systems Group stores, targeted towards professional beauticians and salons.
On Nov 14, Sally Beauty reported its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2013 results. After a decent earnings surprise track record over the last few years, it has suddenly strung together four misses in a row.
It missed by just a penny, reporting $0.38 compared to the Zacks Consensus of $0.39. Once again, the weakness in the quarter could be attributed to the softness in the U.S. retail segment which saw same store sales decline.
The Sally Beauty Supply segment saw sales up 0.2% to $556.1 million in the quarter. Same store sales declined 1.5% versus growth of 3.8% in the year ago quarter.
Additional content:
Green Mountain Earnings Climb Again
Don't look now, but one of the most consistently outperforming companies on the Nasdaq just did it again: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (Nasdaq:GMCR-Free Report), they of the Keurig and K-cup single-brewing system, reported another impressive surprise on both the top and bottom lines after the bell Wednesday. Earnings for the company's fiscal Q4 came in at 89 cents per share (non-GAAP) on revenues of $1.0 billion in the quarter, easily beating expectations of 74 cents per share and $952 million.
It's becoming a habit with these guys: Green Mountain has now beaten earnings expectations in at least 5 straight quarters, and has done so impressively, with an average positive surprise of more than 20%. Not too shabby for a company many analysts had begun to fret was going to have to fight off major competition from companies like Treehouse Foods (NYSE:THS-Free Report) especially following its expiring patents last year, and exists in an industry ranked in the bottom 20% (208 out of 265).
But the Keurig brand looks to continue to be a big success for Green Mountain, especially in the U.S. where the single-cup brewing system is still something of a novel concept. The company also showed savvy by establishing relationships with the biggest players within the coffee market, especially Starbucks (Nasdaq:SBUX-Free Report), which recently stated it has tripled the number of products it makes that use the Keurig brewing system.
Though GMCR stock is up nearly 50% year-to-date, its P/E multiple does not look prohibitively expensive, either. In fact, at 16x 2014 estimated earnings, the company is actually below the industry average. It also sees strong opportunities going forward in both the 'Away From Home' market as well as cold beverages, which it plans to offer in 2015.
All this said, GMCR shares are down a tad in after-market trading after a slightly positive day before the bell. We'll see if anything can be gleaned from the earnings call forthcoming that may warrant a sell-off, but at first glance, Green Mountain is giving off an appetizing aroma.
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