Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, office products retailer Staples (SPLS +0.00%) has received a distressing two-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Staples and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Staples facts
|
Headquarters (founded) |
Framingham, Mass. (1986) |
|
Market Cap |
$11.3 billion |
|
Industry |
Specialty stores |
|
Trailing-12-Month Revenue |
$24.2 billion |
|
Management |
Chairman/CEO Ronald Sargent CFO Christine Komola |
|
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) |
7.8% |
|
Cash/Debt |
$1.4 billion / $2.0 billion |
|
Competitors |
Amazon.com Office Depot OfficeMax |
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 10% of the 982 members who have rated Staples believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.
Just yesterday, one of those Fools, jonknet, tapped Staples as a particularly timely underperform opportunity:
SPLS is being set up for a potential short if the Aug 21 numbers deviate negatively from analyst predictions, which I believe they will. Retail stores in general are being overtaken by online retailers; this trend is well known, and expected to continue. SPLS is taking steps to expand their online business and reducing losses incurred by low performing stores, but in the short term I believe the stock will fall due to a poorer than anticipated earnings report and not recover for another quarter or two.
