Chewy may be getting out of Wall Street’s doghouse
By Paul R. La Monica, CNN Business
So much for Amazon eating Chewy’s kibble. The pet supply e-tailer reported surprise profit and sales numbers that topped forecasts after the closing bell Wednesday. Shares of Chewy soared almost 25% on the news in late afternoon trading Thursday.
Chewy is bucking what has been a downward trend for online retail stocks as of late. Amazon disappointed investors last month when it reported an unexpected loss and weak outlook. Other top e-commerce firms, including eBay, Wayfair, Shopify and Etsy, underwhelmed Wall Street with their latest results, too.
Chewy said that overall sales rose nearly 14% from a year ago, to about $2.4 billion. Sumit Singh, Chewy’s CEO, said in the earnings release that the strong results “are a testament to the resiliency of the pet category.”
Chewy reported its latest earnings on the same day as video game retailer and meme stock phenomenon GameStop, the company that now has Chewy co-founder Ryan Cohen as its chairman and top investor.
GameStop reported a wider-than-expected loss, but the company is hoping that investments in cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will boost results going forward.
Shares of GameStop, which have been volatile following a nearly 700% spike last year, were up 8% Thursday.
But both GameStop and Chewy have fallen this year, due to concerns about slowing consumer spending as the Federal Reserve starts to raise interest rates to fight inflation. GameStop has dropped nearly 15% in 2022 while Chewy has plummeted more than 50%.
Despite the good earnings news, one analyst cut his price target on Chewy’s stock Thursday. Brian Fitzgerald of Wells Fargo lowered his target from $65 a share to $55, citing concerns about “higher interest rates and lower sector valuations.”
A price of $55 would still be double Chewy’s current level, but Fitzgerald noted that there are “new challenges” on the macroeconomic front, namely “weaker consumer discretionary demand” as a result of inflation fears and Fed rate hikes.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved.
