Top Retail Stocks For 2016

Top Retail Stocks For 2016: Groupon Inc (GRPN)

Groupon, Inc. (Groupon) is a local e-commerce marketplace that connects merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount. Each day the Company e-mails its subscribers discounted offers for goods and services that are targeted by location and personal preferences. Consumers also access its deals directly through its Websites and mobile applications. The Company operates in two segments: North America, which represents the United States and Canada; and International, which represents the rest of its global operations. Customers purchase Groupons from the Company and redeem them with its merchants. As of September 30, 2011, the Company featured deals from over 190,000 merchants worldwide across over 190 categories of goods and services. Groupon primarily addresses the worldwide local commerce markets in the leisure, recreation, foodservice and retail sectors. In February 2012, the Company announced the launch of Groupon Thailand. In September 2012, it acqui red Savored.

In May 2010, the Company acquired CityDeal Europe GmbH (CityDeal). In August 2010, the Company acquired Qpod.inc (Qpod). In November 2010, the Company acquired Ludic Labs, Inc., a company that designs and develops local marketing services. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company acquired Mobly, Inc. In February 2011, the Company launched Deal Channels, which aggregates daily deals from the same category.

The Company distributes a featured daily deal by e-mail on behalf of local merchants to subscribers. It offers daily deals from more than 40 national merchants, including Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, Hyatt Regency, InterContinental Hotels, Lions Gate, Redbox, Shutterfly and Zipcar across subsets of the North American market. Daily deals that do not appear as a featured daily deal appear as Deals Nearby. Each Deal Nearby is summarized in fewer tha! n 20 words next to the featured daily deal. Deals Nearby often extends bey ond the subscriber's closest market or buying preferences.

National merchants also have used the Company's marketplace as an alternative to traditional marketing and brand advertising. On August 19, 2010, the Company e-mailed and posted a Groupon daily deal offering $50 of apparel at Gap for $25 to 9.2 million subscribers across 85 markets in North America. It sold approximately 433,000 Groupons in 24 hours. Of the consumers who purchased Groupons, approximately 200,000 were new subscribers. As of September 30, 2011, it had 142.9 million subscribers to its daily e-mails.

Groupon NOW is a deal initiated by a merchant on demand and offered instantly to subscribers through mobile devices and its Website. Subsequent to the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company launched Groupon NOW in 25 North American markets. Deal Channels aggregate daily deals from the same category and are accessible through its Website and through e-mail alerts that subscribers sign up to receive. It offers Deal Channels in home and g arden and event tickets and travel. Merchants can register their deals to be included in a Deal Channel. Subscribers can use Deal Channels to focus on deals that are of interest to them.

Self-Service Deals allows the Company's merchants to use a self-service platform to create and launch deals at their discretion. The use of the platform is free and allows merchants to establish a permanent e-commerce presence on Groupon that can be visited and followed by subscribers. The Company receives a portion of the purchase price from deals sold through Self-Service Deals based on the extent to which it marketed the deal. In December 2010, it launched Self-Service Deals in selected North American markets.

Groupon Goods enables consumers to purchase vouchers for products directly from its Website. The Company e-mails deals for Groupon Goods weekly to a targeted subscriber base! . The Com! pany offers deals for a variety of product categories, including electro nics, home and garden and toys. In September 2011, the Compa! ny launch! ed Groupon Goods in select North American and International markets.

Groupon Rewards enables consumers to unlock special Groupon deals from local merchants through repeat visits. Consumers earn reward points at participating merchants by paying with the credit or debit card they have registered with the Company. Merchants set the amount the consumer must spend to unlock a reward deal, and once a consumer is eligible to unlock a deal, it automatically notifies them. The Company distributes its deals directly through several platforms: a daily e-mail, its Websites, its mobile applications and social networks.

In December 2010, the Company partnered with Redbox to offer a daily deal to their user base and it acquired over 200,000 new customers through that offer and in March 2011, it partnered with eBay to offer a daily deal to their user base and it acquired over 290,000 new customers through that offer. The featured daily deal e-mail contains one hea dline deal with a full-description of the deal and often contains links to More Great Deals Nearby, all of which are available within a subscriber's market.

Visitors are prompted to register as a subscriber when they first visit its Website and thereafter use the Website as a portal for featured daily deals, Deals Nearby, national deals, and where available, Deal Channels and Self-Service Deals. Consumers also access the Company's deals through its mobile applications, which are available on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile operating systems. It launched its first mobile application in March 2010. The Company publishes its daily deals through various social networks and its notifications are adapted to the particular format of each of these social networking platforms.

Groupon competes with Google, Microsoft, Eversave, BuyWithMe and LivingS! ocial. Advisors' Opinion:

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  digitallife/Alamy After a few years of celebrating Groupon (GRPN) and LivingSocial, many bloggers seem to have turned on these sites. Lately, I've noticed a trend in people stating that one of the best ways to save money is to just stay away from coupon sites altogether. I couldn't disagree more. Don't get me wrong, if buy Groupons and LivingSocial coupons and never use them, then these sites are not for you, but for budget shoppers, Groupon and LivingSocial can save a lot of money and offer new experiences, too. Here are five reasons to reconsider group coupon sites: 1. If You're New in Town Groupon and LivingSocial both have terrific coupons for local events, restaurants and activities. If you've just moved or are interested in getting to know your town better, these should be your first stops. With discounts topping out at over 75 percent, you can find coupons for activities like photography classes, karate classes, painting classes, comedy clubs, museums and more. It's a great way to dip your toe into a new hobby or check out a new spot in town without fully committing your wallet, too. 2. If You're Looking for Gifts If a friend moves to a new location, check out Groupon or LivingSocial for an affordable, local restaurant coupon. Groupon has done a good job of developing its image into a place that offers you new and exciting experiences. That can help make a coupon from the site feel like a welcome housewarming gift. Birthdays, holidays and thank you gifts can all be covered through these sites, as well. LivingSocial has a section dedicated to gifts, with a subsection called "under $25" for you frugal shoppers out there. 3. If You Like to Shop Groupon and LivingSocial can be fantastic places to shop for home furnishings and electronics. You can find things like a $90 sewing machine for $20, a $3,400 mattress for $1,300 and a $400 luggage set for $130. I also saw a $60 bathroom set for $18. These sites also have d! eals on c! lothing for men and wome

• [By Roberto Pedone]

  Another technology player that insiders are jumping into here is Groupon (GRPN), which operates online local commerce marketplaces that connect merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount worldwide. Insiders are buying this stock into strength, since shares have rallied higher by 19% over the last three months.

  Groupon has a market cap of $4.9 billion and an enterprise value of $4.2 billion. This stock trades at a premium valuation, with a trailing price-to-earnings of 49. Its estimated growth rate for this year is -54.5%, and for next year it's pegged at 200%. This is a cash-rich company, since the total cash position on its balance sheet is $855.17 million and its total debt is zero.

  The CEO just bought 454,166 shares, or around $3.62 million worth of stock, at $7.85 per share.

  From a technical perspective, GRPN is currently trending just above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, which is bullish. This stock recently gapped up sharply higher from $5.70 to over $7.50 with strong upside volume flows. Shares of GRPN have now pulled back off its recent high of $8.28 a share and the stock is starting to approach both its 200-day and 50-day moving averages.

  If you're in the bull camp on GRPN, then I would look for long-biased trades as long as this stock is trending above its 200-day at $7.03 or its 50-day at $6.77 a share and then once it breaks out above some key near-term overhead resistance levels at around $7.75 to $8.28 a share with high volume. Look for a sustained move or close above those levels with volume that registers near or above its three-month average action of 15.59 million shares. If that breakout triggers soon, then GRPN will set up to re-test or possibly take out its next major overhead resistance level at $9 a share. Any high-volume move above $9 will then give GRPN a chance to re-fill some of its previous gap-down-day zone from February that started near $1! 1 a share! .

   

• [By Garrett Cook]

  Shares of Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) got a boost, shooting up 20.20 percent to $7.20 after the company reported stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings and lowered its fourth-quarter forecast.

• [By WWW.DAILYFINANCE.COM]

  Andy Wong/AP Alibaba (BABA) is the new belle of the dot-com ball in China. The e-commerce juggernaut pulled off a record initial public offering in September when it raised $25 billion on the way to becoming a public company. Analysts love Alibaba. They were able to initiate coverage on Wednesday, following the 40-day quiet period that follows an IPO's debut. Only one of its underwriters -- Goldman Sachs -- failed to tap it as a buy recommendation. It's easy to see the appeal. Alibaba helped 231 million active buyers place 11.3 billion orders totaling $248 billion in transactions last year, and it's just getting started. However, the stock, with its nearly $250 billion market cap, isn't cheap. Let's look at some Chinese dot-coms that have been trading longer and could be more compelling bargains. Baidu (BIDU) China's leading search engine posted another blowout quarter on Wednesday, just as analysts were gushing all over Alibaba. The company behind China's largest search engine saw revenue soar 52 percent over the prior year's third quarter. Earnings climbed just 27 percent, but that was twice as fast as analysts were expecting. Baidu is investing in low-margin online specialties including travel, video and mobile app storefronts, and that weighs on bottom-line growth. Baidu remains one of China's biggest winners. It went public nine years ago at a split-adjusted price of $2.70, and now it trades north of $200. Baidu fulfills roughly two-thirds of all queries, and it is rocking at a time when its profitability is still suppressed. 51job (JOBS) Matching employees to potential hires started out with old-school tech for 51job. It got its start by inserting weekly job listings in more than two doze! n leading! Chinese newspapers. Then the Internet came along, allowing 51job to convert its thick Rolodex and respected brand into a leading online recruiter. It's working: 51job is growing its revenue in the low double digits. It's trading at a reasonable 22 time

source from Top Stocks For 2015:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-retail-stocks-for-2016.html