Editor's Note: Below is a chart and brief excerpt from today's Early Look written by Hedgeye U.S. Macro Analyst Christian Drake. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.
Retail growth expectations are overly bullish. The Chart of the Day says it all…it shows the consensus EPS growth rate for a basket of bellwether names in the retail sector. After bottoming in FY15 (WMT FY16) consensus has numbers accelerating to 10% and 12% in FY16 and FY17 respectively. Compare that to WMT guiding to -10% in its FY16 (calendar ‘15), -9% at the midpoint of the guide in FY17 (calendar ’16), and flat in FY 18 (calendar ’17). Bottom line…either WMT sandbagged, or growth for others will come down. Such a significant gap has not sustained itself for any more than a few quarters.