While integration risk is always the greatest concern with mergers, we have a high comfort level that the (Federated) game plan is achievable.

It appears that the greatest factor for our retailers slowdown up until now had been the unseasonably warm weather, and as soon as we got more seasonally appropriate temperatures it unleashed pent up demand.

The back-to-school season started with a bang and we’re expecting robust sales in September because the consumer appeared to be flooded with cash.

There’s very little excuse for anyone posting weak sales right now, … If that is happening, it because of company specific excuses. The macro environment overall is very strong. The first month of the quarter...

Consumers were not in the holiday spirit up until the last week of the holiday season, when there was a mad rush for the store, … And the big unknown is the result of that...

People are being much more rational with their expenditures. That’s why we’re seeing these discount price retailers generating strong customer traffic and solid sales increases. And we expect strong earnings increases from them.

It shows they’re in the ballpark as far as sales go.

On its own, a comp-store inventory increase of 2-to-5 percent is no big deal. But when you’ve got comp-store sales declines of closer to 10 percent, you’re dealing with a possible 10-point spread, which we...

Historically, Wal-Mart has only been concerned about the consumer. But 12 years ago, Wal-Mart began to woo the investor and sponsored fieldtrips to their headquarters. These were tremendously successful,

It’s clear that the company is redoubling efforts to strengthen itself and build a competitive advantage. Anything that distracts the management from doing just that will be de-emphasized. The sale of its National Tire and...

There’s no point in chasing sales if you’re losing money on those sales.

[Retail sales have gone up and down all year, but we won’t fully understand what’s going on in the minds of American shoppers until the last Christmas gift has been unwrapped. The holiday shopping season...

Retailers that are not catering that well to the middle- and upper-income customers are going to have a tough time.

Investors have been skeptical about the health of the U.S. consumer, and will use this to take profits.

Department stores are already focusing on rejecting shipments from vendors that they ordered. They are also looking to promote inventory they already have in hand. As we get through the season, department stores are going...

The company endorsed consensus analysts’ estimates of a 15 percent EPS growth in the new fiscal year,

The sales results from the department and discount chains were mostly in line with expectations.

They are admitting they have very cloudy visibility on the very critical holiday season. What might be more significant to investors is that even though they had an admittedly superb second quarter, where are we...

The announcement by Neiman Marcus…makes us as concerned as we have ever been that this Christmas will be extremely lackluster, … It appears now the high-end consumer is beginning to scale back their purchases, which...

They’ve learned the lessons from last year and are intent upon not repeating the same mistakes.

There has been real concern for the last several months about hurricanes, about consumer sentiment, about gasoline inflation hurting consumer spending,

Discount stores have really become an increasing portion of consumers’ expenditures. Now there’s talk of fluctuating energy prices, job layoffs, and people are looking for the best value possible. So we believe the discount stores...

Wal-Mart’s EPS growth is twice that of the S&P. For the third consecutive year it has seen an increase in operating margins and we believe it still has tremendous growth opportunity over the next 5...

I think there’s a lot of confusion about the state of the consumer. We had weak numbers in January. February sales were pushed down by horrible weather, and now March could be weak because of...

The news we got today was incrementally negative, even for the best operators out there. And clearly this does not bode well for a strong holiday season.

It’s pretty well accepted that the economy is gradually building momentum, and Kmart has declared bankruptcy,

Is all this a solution for the bigger concerns of the American consumers or the local gas station owner? No. But it is an example of the company trying to show its heart in the...

Wal-Mart is a more mature company today and is showing its willingness to be more open with the press, … From investors’ point of view, this is very good news. All the negative publicity has...

It’s clear that [Wal-Mart] is going to offer very sharp price [discounts] to drive customer traffic. While [fourth-quarter] sales will be respectable, the lower prices necessary to drive traffic will filter through to earnings that...

We believe our competitors have shown irrational exuberance with Christmas forecasts, … We believe the average consumer is worried about higher gasoline prices, jobs and doesn’t believe he will benefit from the stock market. With...

The shopper appears to be in mid-season form with the holiday season just having started.

It could have been a lot worse given the expectations. We had lackluster sales through the spring, through summer, terrorist attacks, and a recession, so an increase of 1 or 2 percent is decent. The...

I think it all comes down to Wal-Mart’s aggressive advertising campaign, … They are being much louder with their campaign, and I think they’ve done a good job of stealing the ‘early-bird’ holiday shoppers.

The companies that are seeing strong gross margin improvements are getting it not from improving their merchandising mix, but from improved buying. Retailers like Wal-Mart and Target are lowering their cost of acquiring products. Sears...

We’re not out of the woods yet. Forty percent of holiday sales are wrapped up in the week before Christmas.

Despite higher gasoline prices, Wal-Mart was able to raise guidance for the second-quarter which is particularly noteworthy because that’s also the period that they will have to deal with the lion’s share of the gas...

We believe this update is a combination of management’s typical conservatism and sales sluggishness from the unusually warm weather,

Kohl’s is having a major disconnect with its customers, … The company’s inventory growth is outpacing sales and I think their problems will continue into the fourth quarter and even the first quarter next year.

It was a mixed bag, … What we got again, as we did in December, is this separation of winners and losers.

All the department stores we talked to admit quite clearly it’s an unprecedented environment, and they have no direct comparison in being able to plan. It makes their job very, very difficult.

They’re telling us to pull our number down by 4 cents (per share).

Clearly they’re the leading broad-line retailer right now. They’re going to exit this environment with tremendous market share gain, and hopefully they’ll be able to translate sales momentum into robust earnings momentum.

I think high-end retail sales will get a boost from this news.

Clearly the last 10 days before Christmas were very strong and allowed retailers to achieve their sales plans for the month despite the lack of aggressive promotions we saw in 2002.

You tend to mark down stuff when you’re stuck,

Wal-Mart’s cautious comments are warranted, … Even though its problems are not company-specific, it does bode badly for the profits and sales across the retail chain in the back half of the year.

Wal-Mart and Target continue to prove that they can operate well in this challenging retail environment and deliver profits despite modest to weak sales results.

We believe that consumers are going to be reluctant to visit shopping malls due to their being a population center and a potential terrorist target. We think some of the department stores in urban centers,...

Wal-Mart has made it very clear that the prospects for this holiday are much stronger than the conventional wisdom would have had it.

We knew Sears was going to have some rough sledding ahead but what’s obvious now is that it’s going to be a lot rougher than anticipated,