Big Lots' (BIG) share price was getting bigger on Monday, on the heels of two analyst price target upgrades published on Monday.
Peter Keith of Piper Sandler slapped $5 on his level for the discount retailer; it now stands at $39 per share. Keith maintained his overweight (read: buy) recommendation while doing so. His comments and rationale behind the bump were not immediately available.
Meanwhile, over at Deutsche Bank, Paul Trussell made a more dramatic change, boosting his own price target on Big Lots to $31 per share, well up from the previous $19. Despite the leap, Trussell is maintaining his hold recommendation.
Image source: Big Lots.
The analyst believes that although it lacks a strong e-commerce presence, Big Lots will benefit from customers spending at least part of their stimulus check money at its registers. That, plus the general convenience of its stores, should assuage concerns about its deficiencies in the e-commerce segment.
These two changes come three days in advance of Big Lots' scheduled publication of its fiscal first-quarter results, which should provide some insight as to the company's performance during the initial stages of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic.
According to Yahoo! Finance, on average the eight analysts tracking the stock are anticipating a $0.32 per share non-GAAP (adjusted) net profit for the period, well down from the $0.92 from the same quarter a year ago. Net sales are expected to come in at $1.31 billion, which would actually be a slight improvement over the nearly $1.3 billion of Q1 2019.
The market's bulls are charging toward that Thursday earnings report. In mid-afternoon trading on Tuesday, they bid the stock up by almost 7.1%, significantly higher than the wider equities market and many top consumer goods titles.
