On July 23, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said that U.S. consumers, on the whole, are tired of the elevated prices being charged by some firms. As a result, “They are pushing back on high prices, they are demanding bargains,” he stated.
Since Cramer keeps a close eye on what many companies, including retailers, are saying, I believe that his assertion is probably correct. Moreover, after a few years of high inflation that have depleted the savings of many consumers, it makes sense that they would be looking for bargains.
In light of the consumers’ mindset, I believe that retailers which offer quality products at fairly low prices are very well-positioned to increase their market share and deliver big gains over the longer term. With that said, here are three of the best retail stocks to buy in the current, value-oriented U.S. retail environment.
Amazon.com (AMZN)
CNBC’s Jim Cramer mentioned Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) as one of three retailers that are succeeding in the current environment in which many U.S. consumers are looking for bargains. (Costco (NYSE:COST)and Walmart (NYSE:WMT)were the other two names that he cited).
As a frequent user of Amazon.com and a Prime member, I can understand why Amazon is thriving at this point. With Prime, I can use the company’s Subscribe and Save feature, which delivers products that I use at regular intervals, to often save 15% on my orders. And quite frequently, I am able to avoid paying the 8.25% sales tax on items that I would have to pay in the stores in Garland, Texas where I live. So that works out to savings of nearly 25% on many items. What’s more, with the many retailers selling products on Amazon, I believe that I can usually find very low prices on items. The company’s ability to save its customers a great deal of money helps make it one of the best retail stocks to buy.
Meanwhile, Amazon plans to launch a new section of its website featuring very low-cost goods from China. The latter initiative should enable the e-commerce giant to obtain many more American shoppers looking for bargains.
TJX (TJX)
The owner of discount retail chains TJ Maxx and Marshalls, TJX (NYSE:TJX) appears to be thriving in the current, bargain-oriented environment. In my experience, TJX’s stores offer quality products at low prices.
In Q1, the retailer’s comparable sales climbed a solid 3% versus the same period a year earlier after logging the same year-over-year comp-sales gain in Q1 of 2023. Moreover, its revenue climbed 6% year-over-year, while its earnings per share soared 22% YOY to 93 cents. The retailer increased its full-year earnings per share outlook to $4.03-$4.09 from $3.94-$4.02.
As a result, analysts, on average, now expect the firm’s EPS to jump to $4.56 in 2025 from $4.14 this year and $3.86 in 2023. That’s very impressive growth on the bottom line. Also noteworthy is that the company, unlike the vast majority of retailers at this point, pays a significant dividend, as it offers a dividend yield of 1.3% at this point.
TJX is successfully defying the conventional wisdom which says that brick-and-mortar retailers not named Costco and Walmart cannot succeed in the modern age. As a result, it’s one of the top retail stocks to buy.
Ross Stores (ROST)
Ross Stores (NASDAQ:ROST) is very similar to TJX, since both retailers, in my own experience, specialize in offering relatively high-quality products at affordable prices.
And like TJX, Ross is obviously succeeding tremendously in the current, value-oriented environment. In Q1, the firm’s top line jumped 9% versus the same period a year earlier to $4.9 billion while its comparable sales increased by a solid 3% year-over-year. And for its full fiscal year, the retailer projects that its earnings per share will come in at $5.79 to $5.98, up from $5.56 in its prior fiscal year. Moreover, an extra week in the previous fiscal year did add about 20 cents to its EPS in that period.
Also importantly, Ross has a significant share repurchase program as it repurchased 1.9 million shares of ROST stock in Q1. And the company also throws in a dividend yield of 1%.
On the date of publication, Larry Ramer held a long position in AMZN. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
On the date of publication, the responsible editor did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.