Analysis of the e-Commerce sector including SQ, LYFT, OSTK, VRSN, DOCU, IBUY.<\/p>\n
The purchase of the remains of the bankrupt Bed Bath and Beyond franchise by Overstock.com epitomizes the continued demise of brick-and-mortar stores succumbing to the efficiencies of e-Commerce.\u00a0 It\u2019s a continuing rather than a new story but the trend seems inexorable.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This thought motivated me to contact Brand Loyalties.\u00a0 A few years ago, I surveyed alternative data sets for an article published in the Journal of Investing in 2019 called \u201cUsing Alternative Research Data in Real World Portfolios.\u201d\u00a0 The standout was Brand Loyalties, a 10+- year specialist in providing alternative-data-based signals to hedge funds and institutional investors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Brand Loyalties produces data sets based upon luminosity (brightness) and relevance of daily website mentions of brands. The analytic techniques and exhaustively thorough mapping lexicon they have developed over the years were eye-opening to me during the research and analysis I performed for the 2019 article. The firm has also maintained live-on-website performance of many equally weighted thematic indices that have persistently outperformed the equivalent ETFs where such ETFs exist.\u00a0 Since inception and in most calendar years, the top performing index has been its e-Commerce index, a nice congruence with this week\u2019s subject.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The stocks selected are:<\/span><\/p>\n Block, Inc.<\/span> (<\/span>SQ)<\/b>, together with its subsidiaries, creates tools that enables sellers to accept card payments and provides reporting and analytics, and next-day settlement. The company provides hardware products, including Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology; Square Terminal, a payments device and receipt printer to replace traditional keypad terminals, which accepts tap, dip, and swipe payments; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Reader for contactless and chips that accepts EMV chip cards and NFC payments, enabling acceptance through Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other mobile wallets. The company was formerly known as Square, Inc. and changed its name to Block, Inc. in December 2021. Block, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is based in San Francisco, California.<\/span><\/p>\n Lyft, Inc.<\/span> (<\/span>LYFT) <\/b>operates a peer-to-peer marketplace for on-demand ridesharing in the United States and Canada. The company operates multimodal transportation networks that offer riders personalized and on-demand access to various mobility options. It provides Ridesharing Marketplace, which connects drivers with riders; Express Drive, a flexible car rentals program for drivers; Lyft Rentals that provides vehicles for long-distance trips; and a network of shared bikes and scooters in various cities to address the needs of riders for short trips. The company also integrates third-party public transit data into the Lyft app to offer riders various transportation options. In addition, it offers access to autonomous vehicles; centralized tools and enterprise transportation solutions, such as concierge transportation solutions for organizations; Lyft Pink subscription plans; Lyft Pass commuter programs; first-mile and last-mile services; and university safe rides programs. The company was formerly known as Zimride, Inc. and changed its name to Lyft, Inc. in April 2013. Lyft, Inc. was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.<\/span><\/p>\n Overstock.com, Inc. <\/span>(<\/span>OSTK)<\/b> Overstock.com, Inc. operates as an online retailer in the United States. It offers furniture, d\u00e9cor, area rug, bedding and bath, home improvement, outdoor, and kitchen and dining items. The company provides its products and services through its internet websites comprising overstock.com, o.co, overstock.ca, and overstockgovernment.com. It also offers businesses advertising products and services on its website; Marketplace, a service that allows its partners to sell their products through third party sites; products to international customers using third party logistics providers; and Supplier Oasis, a single integration point through which its partners can manage their products, inventory, and sales channels, as well as obtain multi-channel fulfillment services through its distribution network. The company was formerly known as D2-Discounts Direct and changed its name to Overstock.com, Inc. in October 1999. Overstock.com, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Midvale, Utah.<\/span><\/p>\n Verisign, Inc. <\/span>(<\/span>VRSN<\/b>), together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of the 13 internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce. It also back-end systems for .cc, .gov, .edu, and .name domain names, as well as operates distributed servers, networking, security, and data integrity services. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.<\/span><\/p>\n DocuSign Inc. (<\/span>DOCU<\/b>) provides electronic signature solutions in the United States and internationally. The company provides DocuSign e-signature solution that enables sending and signing of agreements on various devices; Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), which automates workflows across the entire agreement process; and Gen for Salesforce, which allows sales representatives to automatically generate agreements with a few clicks from within Salesforce. It also provides Identify, a signer-identification option for checking government-issued IDs; Standards-Based Signatures, which support signatures that involve digital certificates; and Monitor that uses advanced analytics to track DocuSign eSignature web, mobile, and API accounts. In addition, the company offers Rooms for Real Estate that provides a way for brokers and agents to manage the entire real estate transaction digitally; DocuSign Federal and DocuSign CLM are FedRAMP, an authorized version of DocuSign eSignature for U.S. federal government agencies; and life sciences modules that support compliance with the electronic signature practices. The company sells its products through direct and partner-assisted sales, and web-based self-service purchasing. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.<\/span><\/p>\n Now let\u2019s look at these stocks adding the ValuEngine lens. The following table presents a look at the data behind these stocks, including the ValuEngine Buy\/Hold\/Sell rating. The ValuEngine Rating is an overall assessment of a stock\u2019s relative attractiveness.\u00a0 It combines the following five factors:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Less than 3 percent of the stock universe receives the highest 5-engine rating (Strong Buy), while the lowest rating is a single engine (Strong Sell).<\/span><\/p>\n For an industry benchmark comparison, we include the Amplify Online Retail ETF (<\/span>IBUY<\/b>).\u00a0 IBUY offers straightforward and diversified equity exposure to global online retailers. The fund holds stock in firms with at least 70% of their revenues from online sales. Firms can be of any market cap subject to typical minimum size and liquidity constraints. US stocks receive a 75% minimum weight, foreign stocks receive the remainder. The equal weighting adds diversity and keeps giants like Amazon from dominating the basket, but also increases exposure to smaller and possibly more risky firms. Overall, IBUY\u2019s targeted online coverage and methodology should be evaluated for soundness and suitability before considering investment in this fund.<\/span><\/p>\n iShares S&P 500 ETF (<\/span>IVV), <\/b>a more efficient and less expensive ETF than <\/span>SPY<\/b> and also represents the S&P 500, is shown as a benchmark for the stocks\u2019 individual data points.<\/span><\/p>\nAll 5,000 stocks, 16 sector groups, 140 industries, and 500 ETFs have been updated.<\/b><\/h6>\n
Two week free trial:<\/b> www.ValuEngine.com<\/b><\/a><\/h6>\n
Current ValuEngine reports on these stocks or ETFS can be viewed<\/b> HERE<\/b><\/a><\/h5>\n
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Current ValuEngine reports on these stocks or ETFS can be viewed<\/b> HERE<\/b><\/a><\/h5>\n