You can get a great deal on many of the publicly traded retail stocks these days. (Photo by ... [+]
If you wanted to buy most of the American retailing industry, it wouldn’t take a whole lot of money, at least compared with the price tag just a month or so ago.
The entire stock market is down by more than a third since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and most companies’ market caps—the total value of all shares at the current price—are severely reduced. But the retail segment has been especially hard hit.
While some retailers such as Walmart and Target, supermarkets like Kroger, dollar stores and drug chains are holding their own, and occasionally even hitting new 52-week highs, most retailing stocks have lost an enormous amount of their value. Many are down by at least 50%, and some even more, resulting in market caps that are astonishing given the size of some of these companies—and the fact that a number of them were at least marginally profitable before the pandemic hit the aisles.
The result has been retailers with all or most of their physical stores closed. A previous article showed more than 100 individual retailing companies—representing tens of thousands of locations—completely closed. And while many of these are continuing to operate their online businesses, the sales generated are a fraction of what they would be if stores were open. Some companies have shut their e-commerce operations as well, meaning they have absolutely no revenue at all.
Here is a representative sampling of major retailing companies’ market caps based on their closing price on Thursday, in millions of dollars:
- Big Lots: $548
- Abercrombie & Fitch: $500
- Bed Bath & Beyond: $452
- Ethan Allen: $231
- Michaels: $228
- Haverty Furniture: $208
- Overstock: $187
- Game Stop: $184
- Hibbett Sports: $170
- The Container Store: $105
- JC Penney: $95
- At Home: $94
- Tailored Brands: $67
- GNC: $37
- Tuesday Morning: $20
- Big 5 Sporting: $15
- Ascena Retail: $10
- Stage Stores: $8
