The financial phenomena of the Apparel, Accessories & Luxury Goods Industry!

The focus of this industry is clearly on the price and the brand conscious people. The industry targets people from the middle income to higher income groups. The demand for this industry has grown exponentially over the years.  It is obvious that high amount of finance is required by companies involved in this industry to cater to the needs of the people. The companies involved in this industry spend millions of dollars in their research and development department in order to come up with products that are in consistent with fashion trends, life styles and the expectations of the consumers. The consumers have seen so much of variety that obviously the consumers associate high expectations with this industry. Hence it is more of an obligation on this industry to live up to the standard of the consumers. The companies involved in the industry often come up with promotional techniques in order to increase sales. Upon the mention of this industry, it is often to mention brand names such as Wal-Mart, H&M, Inditex and GAP which have created their brand names over time.

                Moving on to the market structure of the industry, the structure can be classified as competitive rather than oligopolistic due to many businesses competing in this industry. It is important for the investor to go through the financials of the brands in order to pick the one which is most suitable for portfolio investment. To do so, the stock performances and ratios would be a useful tool for guidance. The company which best fits the requirements of the investor can be chosen for portfolio investment.

            According to the analysis of bidnesetc.com, the analysis of the two companies is listed here. Beginning with the stock performance of Inditex, the stock price started off at EUR 95.82 in last May, however, reached to a level of EUR 107.30 recently, indicating an improvement in the stock performance of the company which reflects that the demand for the stock of the company has risen over time. The company also offers its stockholders to make a high margin for capital gain. The beta for the company is 0.49 which means that for every 10% change in the market return, the company’s return would change by only 4.9%. Hence, this reflects less volatility in the return of the company’s stock which also denotes lower risk. In addition to this, the company has made dividends payments with a dividend per share of EUR 0.95559 which means that the company is also offering return in the form of dividends. Moving on, Wal-Mart Stores, the stock performance has shown an improvement by increasing from $74.84 to $77.01 over the course of a year by showing an improvement of approximately 3%. This clearly indicates that there has been an increase in the demand for Wal-Mart Stores’s stock. Additionally, the company has also increased its per share dividend from $0.47 to $0.48. Similarly, the beta of Wal-Mart Stores is 0.38 which is lower than that of Inditex’s which means the return on Wal-Mart’s stock is much less volatile and hence safer than Inditex’s return. Moreover, the dividend yield on Wal-Mart’s stock is 1.92% and thus offers a reasonable return to its stockholders. Moreover, the stock performance of H&M performed exceptionally well; the stock price was SEK 228 in last May but reached to a level of SEK 281.90. Additionally, the company also made dividend payments equal to SEK 9.50.  Lastly, GAP’s stock also performed well, by increasing in value from $40.55 to $41.44. Additionally the company paid a dividend per share equal to $0.22.

Systems Software Industry - A history

The rise of the famous Silicon Valley resulted in huge fluctuations in the field of computing. Not only this, but the availability of software only generated more and more opportunities to create tremendous amounts of money. Bidnessetc.com gives you a detailed picture of the revolution of the systems software industry over the years.

Back in 1986, the biggest software firms included the likes of Digital Equipment Corp. that came into being in the 1950s, but died down and is unheard of these days. Back then, no companies such as Google or Microsoft existed. A few other companies that existed back then include International Business Machines Corp. that had the largest market cap of $73,180. AT&T Holdings, and another familiar name, Hewlett-Packard, were in the business back then too. HP had a market cap of $10,741 and AT&T had a market cap of $12,900. The total market cap of such foremost ten software companies was calculated to $130 billion. 

Only a decade later, the top ten companies' list saw tremendous changes. The ten largest companies consisted of six new entrants, with only four companies from 1986, making it into the next decade. This time around, the total market cap was calculated to be nearly $580 billion. A huge increase, bidnessetc.com states.

This was also the time when Microsoft embarked on its journey to greatness. The company scooped a market capitalization of over a hundred billion just for itself. Intel, also, expanded its might to vast horizons. With a market cap of two and a half billion in 1986, it soared high and touched almost $110 billion by this time. Therefore, it so happened that companies who did not even comprise the top ten firms a decade ago, had come to become of value much greater than the combined value of the top ten firms back in 1986. Microsoft, here, was a comparatively new entrant into the industry, aiming to produce software for computers and gradually for a much wider base. On the other hand, Intel was bound to celebrate its 28th birthday in 1996.

As years passed by, equally captivating stories would surface and resurface. The year of 1990 saw the Internet transform into a basic necessity of every industry as opposed to a new invention. And it was due to this that Cisco also became a player in the industry. A couple of professors from Stanford University were the founders of the company in 1984. In 1990, the company went public, and had a market capitalization of around $225 million. In just six years' time, the company went to reach a market cap of over $40 billion. Among the top ten firms in 1996, there was Intel on the top with a market cap of $107,77. Then came Microsoft with a market cap of $98,752, and on number three was the International Business Machines Corp. with $78408 in market cap.

2006 witnessed Cisco expanding its horizons to an additional four times. This made Cisco second largest software firm. On top this time, was Microsoft with a market cap of $293,537. Intel had moved to number four. Broadband had become to be available by this time. Hence, there was an added use of the Internet. Businesses were evolving at a fast pace to adopt every novel piece of technological wonder that these companies would throw at them. The year of 1998 was the year when Google also entered the market. It went public six years later, and very swiftly took plunges and leaps to become the top dog in the world of software.

Apple would have made the eleventh place if there were any in the top software firms of 2006. And in just a few years' matter of time, Apple would compete with ExxonMobil on market capitalization, and become the biggest and most sought-after business on the face of this planet.

Nowadays, the world sees another humungous technological advancement in creation. This advancement would revolve around the making of software, its selling and its utilization for any purposes. The movement to cloud computing is a quite evident trend nowadays. Then, the trends also include the movement to SAAS, which stands for software provided as a service. Developments continue to be made to create this software into computing giants that would definitely determine our futures. To keep updated about trends in the industry, please visit www.bidnessetc.com.

Free stock suggestions you need!

Certain set of skills is required to become a stock investor and it is very important to get to know those skills. Stock investment needs you to learn some basics of stocks. It is not easy to learn all these things.

You can get some information about stocks for free and there are several websites for that. One of the example is Reuters, it is a very well know website and has a lot of information available for a number of stocks. It provides daily news and reviews about different stocks. This website has a unique service which is that you can subscribe to regular news of any stock. For example you have invested in DuPont stock and want to keep yourself updated with it, you can subscribe to Reuters for DuPont and you will get an email in case of any new information about your stock. This is a very unique and effective way to remain updated with your stock on daily basis.

Another source for this kind of free information is bidnessetc.com, this is a relatively new website but has a unique of presenting information, it provides information a humorous way and has all the characters animated. It has been divided into different section. There are separate sections like dividends, industry analysis and other news. Industry analysis section is very interesting and useful for new investors as it provides some basic information and growth prospects about the whole industry. This gives an idea to the investor about the whole industry and investor can then analyze the pros and cons of that industry.

Bisdness.com has recently posted an article about home improvement retail industry; this article provides a basic review of this industry but gives you a very clear idea about the industry. Here are a few extracts form that article.

The home improvement retail industry has given an average market premium of 25% in last five years, but this has shown a declining trend in 2014 because there is a fear of housing market slowdown. This industry consists of retailers who sell kitchen fittings, building material, appliances, lumber and other home improvement products. Demand for these items is directly linked with housing demand; therefore, the demand of these products is affected significantly by changes in sales of new and existing products. An estimate says that 85% of all US homes were built before 1980 that’s why they need improvement at frequent intervals and this is a major growth driver for this industry. This industry has shown a significant growth in last years. Industry has shown an annual revenue growth of 4.5% in last three years. This growth can be related to recovery in US economy and housing activity improvement. It is estimated that annual growth of home improvement industry will be above 4.5% for the next three years. This is a mature industry and has a high level of market concentration and homogenous product lines. Annual revenue of industry is around $129 billion. Leading players are Home Depot and Lowe’s with 58% and 39% market share.

Where to look for information when working with stocks?

A lot of information is available on Internet about stocks and stock market and there is lot of issues regarding availability of information. Some websites publish articles for professional use and some are using this as a marketing tool. Being an investor it is very important to know about all the prospects of stocks. For this you need to know about a credible source of information. There are different websites available and they are somewhat different from each other. If you are a new investor there is a risk for you of information overload, you are not in need of all the available information. You only need some specific type of information. Here are some of the reliable and useful sites, which can help you to get started with stock trading.

Bidnessetc.com                                                           

This site is very different from other sites as it presents information in very humorous way. It has all the characters animated, which make it easier for you to relate with. Bidnessetc.com has well divided sections and it is very easy to browse through different sections.

Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo! Finance is a very old provider of stock market information and news. It has all the detailed quotes and historical prices data as well. There is a slight downside to it and it can be a bit confusing sometimes.

Morningstar

Morningstar is different form other websites in a way that it provides information which is not easily available on other sites. In addition to regular information like earning, prices and revenues it also provides analysis of different well-known stocks. It has a subscription service with charges of $20 and offers 14 days free trial. The premium is well worth if you are dealing with good sum of money.

Reuters    

Reuters is well-reputed site for its news service, which is well appreciated by most of the investors. Their financial news is top rated and financial profiles are also unmatched. With the increasing impact of globalization, Reuters is a must read.

CNN Money

If you are looking for company and investing news CNN money is an excellent source.  The company also covers personal finance, the economy, small business and other relevant topics.

Forbes

Forbes is also a favorite source of many known investors. It has several in depth reports and reviews. It will be provide negative and positive reviews. Forbes is known for interviewing former company executives, suppliers and competitors.  Forbes also write opinions and majors decisions of major stock market players.

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is also really good in reporting and it provides a common language to U.S. business community. It also has some great articles in its weekly publications

Smart Money

Smart Money is a joint publication of Hearst Communications Inc., and Dow Jones & Co. They offer some knowledgeable reporting while adding some taste and flavor to it. I really like Paul Sturm’s column where he usually combines commentary and interesting stock screen.