Rahul Sonthalia and Chetan Solanki co-authored the note.
DELL Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), which prided itself on its direct-only channel, has ramped up its retail channel sales in the past 2-3 quarters after losing out significantly to its arch-rival Hewlett Packard Company (HPQ) since 3QCY06(See Earlier Note on HPQ Vs Dell). The impact of the adoption of this new business model can be gauged by changes to certain key financial/operational metrics. read more…
Gayatri Hardikar, Rima Shah, Vaibhavi Tavare and Hemina Mehta have also contributed to this note
In April-08, Discounters benefited from the shift in the timing of Easter. On the other hand, department stores and clothing and accessories retailers did not perform as well in spite of some benefit from the calendar shift. The strongest segments for the Discounters were food, consumable perishables and healthcare categories while apparel and lawn and garden categories were soft. read more…
Rishabh Sinha co-authored the note.
Of the ~380 Tech companies that Gridstone Research covers, around 245 companies have announced their CY1Q08 earnings. We evaluated the earnings performance on two factors:
1. Beat-Miss ratio versus the Company’s guidance for revenue
2. YoY revenue growth achieved in CY1Q08 vs. CY4Q07
Exhibit I provides the Beat-Miss ratio across the three broad industry groups and the overall Tech sector. Software & Services(S&S) have expectedly outshone the other groups. read more…
Sandeep Mukherjee and Sneha Khatri also contributed to this note.
US automakers continued to struggle in a challenging environment for yet another consecutive month. The main cause of concern for the automakers was the rising crude oil prices. The industry is witnessing rather a sharp shift in sales from SUVs, trucks and luxury sedans towards fuel-efficient, compact cars and crossovers due to oil prices hitting as high as $120 per barrel. This trend is visible across all players. Consumer sentiment continues to be hurt by the tightened credit lending norms in addition to increased oil prices.
Among US automakers, GM posted sales decline of 16.3%, while F reported a sales decline of 12.2%. However, among the Japanese automakers, HMC posted sales increase of 6.9%, NSANY reported sales growth of 6.7% and TM reported sales increase of 3.4%. DAI reported sales decline of 3%. These increases were largely due to their significant presence in compact, subcompact and hybrid vehicles. Truck division for all the automakers reported decline in sales. The US industry recorded an estimated seasonal adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 14.7 M units of cars and light trucks for the period ending Apr08.
read more…
We take a look at the performance of the major restaurants, McDonalds Corp. (MCD), YUM! Brands (YUM), and Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) in comparison to the overall Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) segment. QSR’s are a specific type of restaurant, which serves fast food cuisine with low price and generally do not have table service. Gridstone covers 13 companies in the QSR segment. Let’s take a look at the performance of the QSR’s in CY07. read more…
