5 Best Retail Stocks To Watch Right Now

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Applications for U.S. home mortgages decreased last week with potential buyers shying away from the market as rates held steady just below their two-year highs. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity, which includes both refinancing and home purchase demand, declined 3.7 percent in the week ended July 26. It was the seventh week in a row the index has been lower. The MBA's seasonally adjusted index of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, fell 3.4 percent. Fixed 30-year mortgage rates averaged 4.58 percent, unchanged from the week before and only 10 basis points below a two-year high hit earlier in July. Rates have risen sharply since early May, pushed higher by the Federal Reserve's plan to start slowing its economic stimulus later this year if the economy progresses as expected. The Fed is currently buying $85 billion in bonds a month to keep borrowing costs low. The cheap mortgage rates have helped lure homebuyers and worries have emerged that higher costs could take some of the strength out of the housing market's recovery. Still, most economists don't expect it to derail housing's growth altogether. Rates have risen about 1 percentage point since early May, but still remain low by historical standards. Refinancing activity has been hit harder than purchases by the rise in rates, which makes refinancing less lucrative. The gauge of refinancing applications fell 3.8 percent. The refinance share of total mortgage activity was unchanged at 63 percent of applications. The survey covers more than 75 percent of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.

Top 5 Telecom Companies To Invest In Right Now: Citi Trends Inc (CTRN)

Citi Trends, Inc., incorporate on March 3, 1999, is a retailer of urban fashion apparel and accessories for the entire family. The Company offers branded apparel from national brands, as well as private label apparel, accessories and a limited assortment of home decor items. As of February 2, 2013, the Company operated 513 stores in both urban and rural markets in 29 states. The Company�� stores average approximately 10,700 square feet of selling space and are located in neighborhood shopping centers. The Company also offers products under its brands, such as Diva Blue, Red Ape, Vintage Harlem and Lil Ms Hollywood. The Company�� store offers a variety of products for men and women, as well as children. During the fiscal years ended February 2, 2013 (fiscal 2012), the Company opened four new stores.

The Company's merchandise includes apparel, accessories and home decor. Within apparel, the Company offers fashion sportswear for men, women and children, including offerings for newborns, infants, toddlers, boys and girls. Accessories include handbags, jewelry, footwear, belts, intimate apparel and sleepwear. All merchandise sold in the Company's stores is shipped directly from its distribution centers in Darlington, South Carolina and Roland, Oklahoma.

The Company competes with TJX Companies, Inc., Ross Stores, Inc., The Cato Corporation, Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp., Rainbow, Dots, It's Fashion!, Simply Fashions, Wal-Mart and Target, Kmart.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Seth Jayson]

  Calling all cash flows
  When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Citi Trends (Nasdaq: CTRN  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

5 Best Retail Stocks To Watch Right Now: Bed Bath & Beyond Inc.(BBBY)

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a chain of retail stores. It sells a range of domestic merchandise, such as bed linens and related items, bath items, and kitchen textiles; and home furnishings, including kitchen and tabletop items, fine tabletop, basic housewares, general home furnishings, consumables, and certain juvenile products. The company also offers giftware, household products, and health and beauty care items; and infant and toddler merchandise. It operates stores under the names of Bed Bath & Beyond (BBB), Christmas Tree Shops (CTS), Harmon and Harmon Face Values (Harmon), and buybuy BABY. As of August 27, 2011, the company had a total of 1,155 stores, including 986 BBB stores, 70 CTS stores, 54 buybuy BABY stores, and 45 Harmon stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Canada. It also operates two stores under the name of Home & More in the Mexico City through a joint venture. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. was foun ded in 1971 and is based in Union, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) has gained 0.9% to $59.89 as a big share repurchase trumped a BofA Merrill Lynch Underperform from Neutral.

  Tesla (TSLA) has dipped 0.9% to $227.27 after a stolen Tesla Model S was split in two and burst into flames following a high speed chase.

5 Best Retail Stocks To Watch Right Now: Groupon Inc (GRPN)

Groupon, Inc. (Groupon) is a local e-commerce marketplace that connects merchants to consumers by offering goods and services at a discount. Each day the Company e-mails its subscribers discounted offers for goods and services that are targeted by location and personal preferences. Consumers also access its deals directly through its Websites and mobile applications. The Company operates in two segments: North America, which represents the United States and Canada; and International, which represents the rest of its global operations. Customers purchase Groupons from the Company and redeem them with its merchants. As of September 30, 2011, the Company featured deals from over 190,000 merchants worldwide across over 190 categories of goods and services. Groupon primarily addresses the worldwide local commerce markets in the leisure, recreation, foodservice and retail sectors. In February 2012, the Company announced the launch of Groupon Thailand. In September 2012, it acquired Savored.

In May 2010, the Company acquired CityDeal Europe GmbH (CityDeal). In August 2010, the Company acquired Qpod.inc (Qpod). In November 2010, the Company acquired Ludic Labs, Inc., a company that designs and develops local marketing services. During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company acquired Mobly, Inc. In February 2011, the Company launched Deal Channels, which aggregates daily deals from the same category.

The Company distributes a featured daily deal by e-mail on behalf of local merchants to subscribers. It offers daily deals from more than 40 national merchants, including Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, Hyatt Regency, InterContinental Hotels, Lions Gate, Redbox, Shutterfly and Zipcar across subsets of the North American market. Daily deals that do not appear as a featured daily deal appear as Deals Nearby. Each Deal Nearby is summarized in fewer than 20 words next to the featured daily deal. Deals Nearby often extends beyond the subscriber's closest market or buying preferences.

National merchants also have used the Company�� marketplace as an alternative to traditional marketing and brand advertising. On August 19, 2010, the Company e-mailed and posted a Groupon daily deal offering $50 of apparel at Gap for $25 to 9.2 million subscribers across 85 markets in North America. It sold approximately 433,000 Groupons in 24 hours. Of the consumers who purchased Groupons, approximately 200,000 were new subscribers. As of September 30, 2011, it had 142.9 million subscribers to its daily e-mails.

Groupon NOW is a deal initiated by a merchant on demand and offered instantly to subscribers through mobile devices and its Website. Subsequent to the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company launched Groupon NOW in 25 North American markets. Deal Channels aggregate daily deals from the same category and are accessible through its Website and through e-mail alerts that subscribers sign up to receive. It offers Deal Channels in home and garden and event tickets and travel. Merchants can register their deals to be included in a Deal Channel. Subscribers can use Deal Channels to focus on deals that are of interest to them.

Self-Service Deals allows the Company�� merchants to use a self-service platform to create and launch deals at their discretion. The use of the platform is free and allows merchants to establish a permanent e-commerce presence on Groupon that can be visited and followed by subscribers. The Company receives a portion of the purchase price from deals sold through Self-Service Deals based on the extent to which it marketed the deal. In December 2010, it launched Self-Service Deals in selected North American markets.

Groupon Goods enables consumers to purchase vouchers for products directly from its Website. The Company e-mails deals for Groupon Goods weekly to a targeted subscriber base. The Company offers deals for a variety of product categories, including electronics, home and garden and toys. In September 2011, the Compa! ny launch! ed Groupon Goods in select North American and International markets.

Groupon Rewards enables consumers to unlock special Groupon deals from local merchants through repeat visits. Consumers earn reward points at participating merchants by paying with the credit or debit card they have registered with the Company. Merchants set the amount the consumer must spend to unlock a reward deal, and once a consumer is eligible to unlock a deal, it automatically notifies them. The Company distributes its deals directly through several platforms: a daily e-mail, its Websites, its mobile applications and social networks.

In December 2010, the Company partnered with Redbox to offer a daily deal to their user base and it acquired over 200,000 new customers through that offer and in March 2011, it partnered with eBay to offer a daily deal to their user base and it acquired over 290,000 new customers through that offer. The featured daily deal e-mail contains one headline deal with a full-description of the deal and often contains links to More Great Deals Nearby, all of which are available within a subscriber's market.

Visitors are prompted to register as a subscriber when they first visit its Website and thereafter use the Website as a portal for featured daily deals, Deals Nearby, national deals, and where available, Deal Channels and Self-Service Deals. Consumers also access the Company�� deals through its mobile applications, which are available on the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows mobile operating systems. It launched its first mobile application in March 2010. The Company publishes its daily deals through various social networks and its notifications are adapted to the particular format of each of these social networking platforms.

Groupon competes with Google, Microsoft, Eversave, BuyWithMe and LivingSocial.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Steve Heller]

  Recently, Groupon's (NASDAQ: GRPN  ) �co-CEOs sat down with Business Insider, which uncovered that the daily-deals company wants to transform itself into a $100 billion-a-year business. Considering Groupon is expected to earn only $2.5 billion this year, that aspiration seems pretty unrealistic. In this video, Fool contributor Steve Heller gets into the details and explores what it will take for Groupon to improve its top line by several orders of magnitude.

• [By gurujx]

  Groupon Inc (GRPN): CFO Jason Child Sold 40,000 Shares

  CFO Jason Child sold 40,000 shares of GRPN stock on 09/23/2013 at the average price of $11.98. Jason Child owns at least 300,778 shares after this. The price of the stock has decreased by 2.67% since.

• [By Dan Caplinger]

  Finally, outside the Dow, Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN  ) has spiked 13% following an upgrade by analyst Deutsche Bank, which believes Groupon's mobile app should help the company see improvement in its coupon use. This stock price jump is surprising, given that most investors had thought daily deals and coupons were largely a fad whose time had already passed, but if Groupon can make its offerings more mobile-friendly, then it might be able to reinvigorate the relatively dormant niche.

5 Best Retail Stocks To Watch Right Now: Caseys General Stores Inc.(CASY)

Casey?s General Stores, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates convenience stores under the Casey?s General Store, HandiMart, and Just Diesel names in 11 Midwestern states, primarily Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. Its stores offer foods, beverages, dairy and bakery products, sandwiches, fountain drinks, donuts, cookies, brownies, Danish rolls, ham and cheese sandwiches, pork and chicken fritters, sausage sandwiches, chicken tenders, popcorn chicken, breakfast croissants and biscuits, breakfast pizza, hash browns, quarter-pound hamburgers and cheeseburgers, and potato cheese bites. The company?s stores also provide nonfood items, which include tobacco products, health and beauty aids, school supplies, house wares, pet supplies, photo supplies, and automotive products. In addition, it offers gasoline or gasohol for sale on a self-service basis. As of July 31, 2011, the company operated 1,665 stores. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By John Kell and Lauren Pollock var popups = dojo.query(".socialByline .popC"); ]

  Casey's General Stores Inc.(CASY) said its fiscal third-quarter earnings fell 5.1% as the convenience-store operator reported higher costs, which offset an increase in revenue.

• [By Mike Deane]

  After the bell on Monday, Casey’s General Stores (CASY) announced its fiscal Q1 earnings, posting a strong increase in profits and overall revenues compared to the same time period last year.

  The Ankeny, IA-based convenience store company announced quarterly revenues of $2.11 billion, which were up from $1.87 billion in last year’s same quarter. Profits for the company came in at $55.71 million, or $1.43 per share, compared to $39.03 million, or $1.01 per share, in last year’s Q1.

  Both of these figures beat analysts’ estimates, which were EPS of $1.26 on revenues of $2.1 billion.

  CASY shares were up $1.01, or 1.49%, at market close on Monday. YTD, the stock is up more than 26%.