It was a cruel week for investors that were long the market. Stocks experienced their worst week of trading since the 2008 financial crisis, and naturally there were thousands of stocks hitting new lows.
Etsy (ETSY -0.13%), Comcast (CMCSA -0.04%), and Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI -0.63%) are some of the stocks that hit fresh 52-week lows on Friday. Let's go over why these particular stocks deserve to be doing better than their stock charts suggest.
Image source: Etsy.
Etsy
The leading online marketplace for arts and crafts should be among the handful of stocks thriving in this new normal. Artsy types are homebound, and with conventional revenue streams drying up why wouldn't they be selling their creations through Etsy? There were 2.7 million active sellers on Etsy at the start of 2020, 28% more than what the marketplace was featuring a year earlier. This number of Etsy has to be growing briskly right now, and their offerings has to be expanding even faster with all of the free time to create.
Demand is naturally the other side of the equation's success, and the outlook is murky on that front. Etsy helped clear nearly $5 billion in merchandise sales last year between its sellers and 46.4 million active buyers, but there's no denying that money will be tight for consumers at the other end of this COVID-19 quagmire.
Etsy should still fare better than most creative marketplaces. It's an online platform, and that's a plus in this age when traditional retail outlets are closing down. Etsy's move to acquire Reverb -- an online marketplace for secondhand musical gear -- fits perfectly into today's climate of deal-seeking artists. Etsy hit a 21-month low on Friday, but it's a much better company now.
Comcast
Some elements of Comcast's business are in a tailspin these days. Its Universal Studios theme parks closed last week, and they will remain shuttered for weeks and more likely months at this point. Its movie studio is also in the crosshairs of the coronavirus outbreak, and with multiplex operators shut down Comcast will release Trolls World Tour as a digital release for $20 a pop.
Thankfully Comcast's larger broadband and cable businesses are made for the current environment. Comcast's Xfinity is the country's largest cable television provider. Folks will be spending a lot of time watching TV in the coming weeks. The cord-cutting trend is alive and well, but on that front we also have Xfinity as the country's largest broadband internet provider. Next month select Xfinity cable TV subscribers will receive access to Peacock, ahead of this summer's public release of the the new NBCUniversal streaming service.
Many consumer-facing companies are seeing their profit targets slashed, but Comcast has held up better than the rest. Analysts see Comcast trading at 11 times this year's earnings and less than 10 times next year's bottom-line showing. The stock hit another 52-week low on Friday despite its quarantine-ready business.
Sirius XM Holdings
Satellite radio doesn't have the same kind of coronavirus-resistant business model as Etsy or Comcast, but there's a lot to like here when it comes to the country's satellite radio monopoly. Sirius XM Radio is consumed largely by drivers, so it's easy to see why fears of rising unemployment levels will erode the number of commuters willing to pay up for premium in-car audio entertainments.
Thankfully, Sirius XM has proven resilient in the past. It has tacked on at least a million net subscriber additions a year over the past decade, and last year's acquisition of Pandora makes it a timely play for the home-based streaming revolution that will surge in the coming weeks.
Sirius XM stock hit a three-year low despite a model that's been very profitable with a low historical churn rate. Weak auto sales and a dip in driving aren't ideal, but Sirius XM's expanding programming and push into digital streaming will help through the lull.
This is admittedly a challenging time for consumer discretionary stocks. Etsy, Comcast, and Sirius XM will have to earn their keep, but they're better suited to deal with the uncertainties than most of the stocks that are also hitting 52-week lows right now.
