Amazon expected to contribute more than half of Q4 earnings growth for S&P 500 retail

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https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-expected-to-contribute-more-than-half-of-q4-earnings-growth-for-sp-500-retail-2018-11-24
Amazon.com Inc.’s fourth quarter earnings are expected to account for more than half of earnings growth among S&P 500 retailers, according to a report from FactSet.
FactSet expects Amazon AMZN, -0.97%   to report earnings per share of $5.51, more than double the $2.16 the e-commerce giant reported last year. Amazon beat FactSet earnings expectations the last five quarters.
“Amazon.com is expected to report the highest earnings growth and is expected to be the largest contributor to earnings growth for the Retailing Industry Group and Food & Staples Retailing Industry Group combined,” wrote John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet. “If Amazon were excluded, the estimated earnings growth for Q4 for these two retail industry groups would fall to 6.8% from 15%.”
Ten of the 13 retail sub-industries, including internet and direct marketing retail (projected for 69.4% growth), automotive retail (expected to be up 22.4%) and home improvement retail (forecast for 20.1% growth) are expected to report higher fourth-quarter earnings.
Other categories projected for double-digit growth include general merchandise stores (up 12.3%) and food distributors (up 11.1%). Drug retail, department stores and specialty stores are forecast to grow 6.9%, 6.8% and 6.4% respectively.
“Amazon alone accounts for more than half of the projected earnings growth for all S&P 500 retailers for the fourth quarter,” Butters wrote.
Computers and electronics retail, and apparel retail are expected to fall less than 1% while food retail is forecast to contract 24.5%.
Amazon kicked off Cyber Monday Deals Week on Saturday, November 24 and will offer shopping deals each day through December 1. Amazon devices, like the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick and Fire HD tablets are among the items to be discounted. Toys, home furnishings and household essentials will also be included categories.
Prime members will get early access to “lightning deals,” with a 30-minute head start.
Amazon is facing tough competition from retailers like Target Corp. TGT, -2.76%  , which is offering free shipping with no minimum, and Walmart Inc. WMT, +0.99%  , which kicked off the Thanksgiving shopping weekend with parties and launched its online shopping deals two hours earlier this year.
Amazon announced that it would match Target’s free shipping offer in early November.
“Walmart and Amazon will not back down,” said Charlie O’Shea, Moody’s lead retail analyst, who spoke with MarketWatch after observing the first few days of the holiday weekend.
Amazon shares have rallied 28.4% for the year so far while the Amplify Online Retail ETF has gained 4.1%, The SPDR S&P Retail ETF XRT, +0.29% has fallen 0.7%, and the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.66%   has slipped 1.5% for the period.

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