Consumer Investing Goes Well Beyond Retail, Williams Capital Research Reports

“The last couple of weeks served as a reminder that consumer investing goes well beyond retail,” Williams Capital Research started in a new report released this morning. “Despite some notable earnings and guidance disappointments from retailers, the relative strength of the consumer sectors continued through the month of May. “On both a month-to-date and a quarter-to-date basis, all consumer sectors are leading their respective benchmarks. Only Smid consumer discretionary has yet to fully regain the ground lost in 1Q11. In recent weeks, Small-cap consumer discretionary has now joined Small-cap and Mid-cap consumer staples in trading at a discount to their respective benchmarks (on a 2011 P/E basis). “As we mentioned in our last edition of Consumer Eagle, the overriding theme of this earnings season was how many companies were confident enough to announce price increases. This past week continued the trend, especially for us coffee drinkers. On consecutive days, both The JM Smucker Company

and Starbucks Corporation

announced double-digit price increases. We do expect to see more companies attempt to pass on price increases.” The JM Smucker Company closed Friday at $78.26; Starbucks closed at $36.46.