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A sale sign sits on a display at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
It’s been a mixed bag for retail stocks in 2021. Some shares have surged while others have landed in the clearance aisle. In any case, executives and directors at retail companies—hot and not—have been buying up stock ahead of 2022.
A huge buy at
Dick’s Sporting Goods
(ticker: DKS) hit it out of the park. Edward Stack, the retailer’s executive chairman and former CEO, paid $25 million on Dec. 7 for 227,000 shares, a per-share average price of $110.30. According to a form he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Stack now owns 11 million shares.
Dick’s didn’t make Stack available for comment. Stack’s stock purchase looks particularly bullish for three reasons: Dick’s stock already sports a hefty gain in 2021; Stack already owns enough shares to control the company; and this is his first buy in a while.
Stack bought shares after they slumped in the wake of upbeat third-quarter earnings. But Dick’s stock is still up 85% so far this year, compared with a 23% rise in the
S&P 500 index. Stack, the son of founder Richard “Dick” Stack, controlled 56% of the company’s overall voting power as of April 12 through his publicly traded shares and nontrading supervoting stock.This was Stack’s first open-market purchase in years. He paid $5 million in May 2014 for 115,000 Dick’s shares, an average price of $42.56 each.
Barnes & Noble Education
(BNED) stock has surged 41% so far this year. The operator of college bookstores reported disappointing fiscal-second-quarter earnings at the end of November. Earlier this year, a big shareholder trimmed back its position.
Investment firm Holdsworth Group paid $1.3 million from Dec. 1-15 for 180,000 Barnes & Noble Education shares, an average price of $7.01 each. The firm now owns 410,000 shares. Barnes & Noble Education director Zachary D. Levenick is a managing partner at Holdsworth Group.Barnes & Noble Education declined to comment. Holdsworth Group didn’t respond to a request for comment.
1847 Goedeker (GOED) went public in 2020, and so far in 2021, shares of the online home-furnishings retailer have tumbled 73%. Earlier this year, Goedecker had a public offering of about 91.1 million units—each consisting of one common share and one warrant to purchase one common share—for $2.25 each.
Goedecker CEO Albert Fouerti paid $1 million from Dec. 10-13 for 458,876 shares, a per-share average price of $2.18. He now owns 788,876 shares. Fouerti also bought stock in September.Fouerti wrote in an email to Barron’s: “Now that we’ve pivoted to a growth-oriented e-commerce strategy, I believe we can ultimately become a market leader in home appliances. It’s just going to take focus, patience and a willingness to prioritize the long-term. Since I’m asking the market to believe in my vision, I want to be as aligned as possible with our stockholders.”
Wade Miquelon, president and CEO of
Joann
(
JOAN
), paid $513,200 on Dec. 7 for 55,000 shares of the parent of fabric and craft specialty stores. Miquelon now owns 157,550 shares.
Joann didn’t respond to a request to make Miquelon available for comment.
Miquelon, who has been in the CEO post since February 2019, bought stock earlier this year, in March—at the company’s initial public offering that priced shares at $12—and in April. As of Friday’s close, Joann shares have slipped 15% from that IPO price.
Sportsman’s Warehouse Holdings
(SPWH) stock has dropped 37% year to date. The retailer of outdoor sporting goods saw a large investor shed shares earlier this year. Baird analyst Justin E. Kleber noted that third-quarter earnings, reported earlier this month, came up short.
“While the stock feels oversold as the shareholder base turns over,” Kleber wrote in a research report, “we believe greater visibility into fiscal 2022 will likely be required to see a sustained re-rating.” He cut the target price on Sportsman’s Warehouse stock to $16 from $18, and has a Neutral rating.
Sportsman’s Warehouse Chairman Joseph P. Schneider paid $111,000 on Dec. 14 for 10,000 shares, an average price of $11.10 each. Schneider now owns 99,217 shares. The company didn’t respond to a request to make him available for comment.
Inside Scoop is a regular Barron’s feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members—so-called insiders—as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.
Write to Ed Lin at [email protected] and follow @BarronsEdLin.