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Levi Strauss Has “Pricing Power”

Today is Thursday, October 7, 2021.

Levi Strauss Has “Pricing Power” to Push Stock Higher

Shares of Levi Strauss (NYSE: LEVI) increased 3.55% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company posted strong earnings and a positive outlook, despite some economic headwinds.

Numbers: Levi Strauss reported earnings per share of 48 cents, which was better than the expectation of 37 cents per share. Revenue shot up 41% to $1.5 billion, which was slightly better than analyst expectations.

Behind the Numbers: The clothing company said that both wholesale and direct-to-consumer revenue increased in the quarter, but it was digital sales that really pushed revenue up.

Feeling Good: Now, Levi Strauss is raising its guidance and initiating a $200 million share buyback program.

What They’re Saying: President and CEO Chip Bergh said that the success was achieved “despite a more difficult macro-environment than we expected,” largely because of “the scale and agility of our supply chain network.” Furthermore, CFO Harmit Singh said the company has "pricing power to mitigate inflationary pressures.”

Final Thoughts: The company is financially stable, but can the stock survive a market correction?

Notables

Notable Earnings Today: Tilray (Nasdaq: TLRY), Conagra Brands (NYSE: CAG), Helen of Troy (Nasdaq: HELE), Lamb Weston (NYSE: LW).

Notable IPOs Today: Life Time Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LTH), Cingulate Inc. (Nasdaq: CING), WisdomTree Target Range Fund (Nasdaq: GTR), iFit Health & Fitness Inc (Nasdaq: IFIT), Theseus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Common Stock (Nasdaq: THRX).

Notable Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns Ending Today: PayDownHero (Wefunder).

Notable Economic Events Today: Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m. ET).

Bitcoin’s Early October Rally, Explained

The price of Bitcoins is up 16% in the past five days and it is reaching its highest level since May.

Here are at least four reasons why the price of Bitcoin has been soaring lately.

Bank on it: U.S. Bank, which is one of the largest retail banks in the country, launched a cryptocurrency custody service to fund managers on Tuesday. This is the largest bank in the nation to offer this service.

No Ban: While regulations on cryptocurrency are still up in the air, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said this week that he won’t ban cryptocurrency, which is positive.

Big Money: Institutional investors are bullish on crypto, with CoinShares reporting that it’s been 7 weeks in a row of positive inflows into digital assets.

More Businesses: This week, PacSun announced that it would accept Bitcoin as payment, and AMC (NYSE: AMC) will accept Dogecoin for gift card purchases.

Final Thoughts: The price of Bitcoin is volatile and could drop, but for now things are going well.

Google is Great, But Don’t Forget These Stocks

Google (Nasdaq: GOOGL) is a tech behemoth that is involved in many industries. Plus, the stock is up 58% this year.

But if you wanted to invest in alternative options instead, here are some competitors.

Micro FAANG: It’s not a FAANG stock, but’s its pretty close. Shares of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) are up 32% this year. It competes against Google in enterprise technology (especially in the cloud business) and Microsoft owns Bing, a search engine. The stock also has a dividend yield of 0.86%.

Across the Enterprise: And Microsoft isn’t the only competitor of Google that is in the enterprise. There’s Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), IBM (NYSE: IBM), and Oracle (NYSE: ORCL). All three stocks are up this year.

Other FAANG: If you are looking for other competitors, look at some of the FAANG stocks, namely Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), which is a competitor in the cloud computing space, and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), which is a competitor in the mobile tech space.

Final Thoughts: Investors can build a portfolio of Google competitors pretty easily.

Trends to Watch

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