Sally Beauty Holdings (STAR)
SBH - NYSE
Whether you’re planning to dye your hair orange, paint your fingernails purple or looking for a mannequin head to practise on before you take the scissors to a loved one’s hair, Sally Beauty has all the beauty supplies you’ll ever need. Shares of the distributor and retailer – which operates more than 3,700 stores in 12 countries including Canada – were looking beautiful indeed after two brokerages hiked their ratings on the shares to “outperform,” citing the stock’s attractive valuation after a recent dip. Investors are partial to the colour green.
Boot Barn Holdings (STAR)
BOOT - NYSE
Hey y’all, now that the pandemic is fadin’ away, it’s a great time to slide into a shiny new pair of boots from Boot Barn. But you’d better get there fast: Boot Barn’s sales rose 37 per cent last quarter thanks to strong demand for work boots in oil country. And cowboy boots are real popular, too, now that folks will be heading out to country music concerts, county fairs and rodeos this summer, chief executive officer Jim Conroy told CNBC. Y’all should consider buyin’ a few shares of Boot Barn while you’re at it. They’re up more than 300 per cent in the past year. Yeehaw!
Hardwoods Distribution (STAR)
HDI - TSX
Business quiz! Shares of Hardwoods Distribution rose after the Langley, B.C.-based distributor of lumber and architectural wood products: a) received an order to supply all the hard maple for a 10-lane bowling alley on Jeff Bezos’s new superyacht; b) was added to the list of stocks tipped by Reddit group WallStreetBets to “go to the moon”; c) announced a US$303-million acquisition of U.S.-based Novo Building Products, prompting analysts to raise their price targets on Hardwoods Distribution’s shares. Answer: c.
Loop Industries (STAR)
LOOP - Nasdaq
Generally, it’s prudent to avoid investing in companies that have no revenues and are targeted by short sellers. But it doesn’t seem to have hurt Loop Industries. Less than nine months after Hindenburg Research dismissed Loop’s plastics recycling technology as “smoke and mirrors” – an allegation Loop said was disproved by a subsequent independent review – its stock jumped, albeit briefly, this week after it said SK Global Chemical is acquiring a 10-per-cent stake in Loop for $56.5-million. With Loop and South Korea-based SK Global also planning a joint venture to build PET plastics recycling plants in Asia, investors are betting Loop’s plans aren’t so loopy after all.
Rite Aid (DOG)
RAD - NYSE
“All I hear all day long is COVID, COVID, COVID. I’m tired of being in COVID’s shadow all the time!” If the common cold could speak, it would probably sound a lot like Jan Brady. Not only are people not talking about the common cold, they aren’t buying as much cough and cold medicine thanks to the effectiveness of masks and physical distancing. Hurt by weak demand for over-the-counter products, U.S. pharmacy chain Rite Aid posted first-quarter sales below expectations and its full-year earnings forecast also missed estimates, sending the stock down sharply. Here’s the story ... of unhappy investors.
A humorous look at the companies that caught our eye, for better or worse, this week
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John Heinzl