Latest news with #PaulLejuez
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Dollar General Stock Skyrockets Nearly 14%--But Is This Just the Calm Before a Long Decline?
Dollar General (NYSE:DG) shares surged nearly 14% at 12.11pm after the company beat Wall Street's Q1 expectations, reporting adjusted earnings of $1.78 per share on $10.4 billion in revenue. Same-store sales rose 2.4%, driven by higher average basket sizes despite softer foot traffic. CEO Todd Vasos noted strong market-share gains in core categories like food and household essentialsplus an encouraging uptick in spending from middle- and high-income consumers. Citi's Paul Lejuez, who upgraded the stock in April, said the quarter was solid enough to support the rally, even with tariff uncertainties still on the radar. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Sign with DG. That near-term boost, however, doesn't erase a broader concern: growth has hit a wall. A look at the last 12 quarters shows revenue stuck between $9 and $10 billion, with net margins hovering in a tight 3.5% to 5% range. Net income and EBITDA have barely budged. Longer-term data suggests Dollar General's strongest growth phase happened years agowell before COVID. While the business rebounded post-pandemic, it hasn't regained that earlier acceleration. Since 2023, results have been flat, pointing to a possible saturation of the current model. In the short term, DG could continue to benefit as a defensive play in a shaky macro environment. But the charts are starting to whisper a tougher truth: this might be as good as it gets without a major shift in strategy. Investors chasing Tuesday's spike may want to pause and ask whether they're buying momentumor just buying time. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Dollar General Stock Skyrockets Nearly 14%--But Is This Just the Calm Before a Long Decline?
Dollar General (NYSE:DG) shares surged nearly 14% at 12.11pm after the company beat Wall Street's Q1 expectations, reporting adjusted earnings of $1.78 per share on $10.4 billion in revenue. Same-store sales rose 2.4%, driven by higher average basket sizes despite softer foot traffic. CEO Todd Vasos noted strong market-share gains in core categories like food and household essentialsplus an encouraging uptick in spending from middle- and high-income consumers. Citi's Paul Lejuez, who upgraded the stock in April, said the quarter was solid enough to support the rally, even with tariff uncertainties still on the radar. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 7 Warning Sign with DG. That near-term boost, however, doesn't erase a broader concern: growth has hit a wall. A look at the last 12 quarters shows revenue stuck between $9 and $10 billion, with net margins hovering in a tight 3.5% to 5% range. Net income and EBITDA have barely budged. Longer-term data suggests Dollar General's strongest growth phase happened years agowell before COVID. While the business rebounded post-pandemic, it hasn't regained that earlier acceleration. Since 2023, results have been flat, pointing to a possible saturation of the current model. In the short term, DG could continue to benefit as a defensive play in a shaky macro environment. But the charts are starting to whisper a tougher truth: this might be as good as it gets without a major shift in strategy. Investors chasing Tuesday's spike may want to pause and ask whether they're buying momentumor just buying time. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Citi Keeps Neutral Stance on Target (TGT), Cuts PT
On May 22, Citi analyst Paul Lejuez lowered the firm's price target on Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT) to $94 from $97, keeping a Neutral rating on the shares. The downgrade came in response to the company's weaker-than-expected fiscal Q1 2025 results reported on May 21. Management lowered the company's guidance for fiscal year 2025, which, according to the analyst, suggests that weak sales trends observed in Q1 are expected to continue. A woman purchasing groceries at a Target store, with a cart full of products. Target Corp. (NYSE:TGT) reported net sales of $23.8 billion, compared with $24.5 billion in 2024. Comparable sales dropped 3.8% in fiscal Q1 2025, with a 5.7% decline in comparable store sales. Management now expects a low-single-digit decline in sales for fiscal 2025, along with a GAAP EPS of $8.00 to $10.00. Adjusted EPS is anticipated to be in the $7.00 to $9.00 range. The analyst told investors in a research note that the lower fiscal 2025 guidance "seems to provide cushion" after a weak quarter, with higher-than-planned apparel and home inventories and a loss in market share in more than half of the company's 35 categories. However, the firm believes the earnings guidance has not been "derisked." The analyst opined that Target's (NYSE:TGT) gross margin pressure is likely to extend to H2 2025 since it is dealing with headwinds "that may not be quick to improve." While we acknowledge the potential of TGT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than TGT and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about the . READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Five Below Stock Popped by 8% on Tuesday
An analyst from a prominent bank made a significant change to his price target on the shares. He didn't change his recommendation, though. 10 stocks we like better than Five Below › Any time an analyst cranks their price target on a stock more than 50% higher, you can bet the market will stand up and take notice. That's what happened on Tuesday, with retail stock Five Below (NASDAQ: FIVE). On such a move by a pundit, investors lapped up the stock to send it to a more than 8% price gain at market close. That made it look good even next to the sprightly S&P 500 index (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC), which gained a bit over 2%. Before market open, Citigroup's Paul Lejuez raised his Five Below price target. Actually, it might be more accurate to use a verb like "catapulted." The pundit's new fair-value assessment of the retailer places it at $121 per share, well up from his former level of $80. Despite the fairly drastic move, Lejuez maintained his neutral recommendation on the stock. According to reports, Lejuez cited the company's recently released first-quarter earnings pre-announcement as a chief reason for his move. This indicated that Five Below's comparable sales rose nearly 7% year over year in its first quarter, which would be far ahead of the company's guidance for the period of flat to only 2% growth. However, although Lejuez feels that management will raise its "comps' guidance for the full year due to the expected first-quarter result, he feels its earnings outlook will be unchanged due to the current tariffs. Five Below's recently raised revenue guidance and that, combined with the anticipated comparable-sales result for the first quarter, would make me more bullish than the Citigroup analyst. I also think the tariff war will sputter out, and as a result, energize the U.S. retail consumer. Therefore, this stock is definitely looking like a buy to me these days. Before you buy stock in Five Below, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Five Below wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $639,271!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $804,688!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 957% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 167% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Citigroup is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Five Below. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Five Below Stock Popped by 8% on Tuesday was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why Are Urban Outfitters (URBN) Shares Soaring Today
Shares of clothing and accessories retailer Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) jumped 21.9% in the afternoon session after the company reported strong first quarter 2025 results, which blew past analysts' sales, EBITDA, and earnings expectations. Management attributed the outperformance to "positive sales growth and improved profitability across all brands" which suggested the company's strategy was resonating with customers. Zooming out, we think this quarter featured some important positives. Is now the time to buy Urban Outfitters? Access our full analysis report here, it's free. Urban Outfitters's shares are somewhat volatile and have had 14 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Urban Outfitters and indicate this news significantly impacted the market's perception of the business. The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 6 months ago when the stock gained 17.1% on the news that the company reported strong third quarter financial results. Urban Outfitters beat analysts' sales expectations. The top line reflected strengths across retail, subscription, and wholesale segments. The company recorded a significant increase in gross profit margin, reflecting higher merchandise markups and lower markdowns in key brands. This enabled URBN to beat on profit and earnings. Zooming out, we think this was a solid quarter. Following the results, Citi analyst Paul Lejuez upgraded the stock's rating from Neutral to Buy and raised his price target from $42 to $59. The analyst cited the reasons for the upgrade, adding that while 3Q's comparable sales were weak overall, there were several signs that the brand is moving in the right direction: 1. Profitability improved for the first time in many quarters. 2. Comps/traffic improved sequentially throughout 3Q and exited the quarter in better shape. Urban Outfitters is up 27.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $72.71 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Urban Outfitters's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $4,235. Today's young investors likely haven't read the timeless lessons in Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology because it was written more than 20 years ago when Microsoft and Apple were first establishing their supremacy. But if we apply the same principles, then enterprise software stocks leveraging their own generative AI capabilities may well be the Gorillas of the future. So, in that spirit, we are excited to present our Special Free Report on a profitable, fast-growing enterprise software stock that is already riding the automation wave and looking to catch the generative AI next.
