Makers of discretionary consumer goods are in a sweet spot—and many of their stocks aren’t expensive.
The aggregate 2023 forecast for earnings per share at companies in the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Consumer Discretionary exchange-traded fund , which weights each stock equally and strips out the outsize impact of Amazon.com , has risen 10% in the past six months, according to FactSet. In addition to Ford, GM, and Booking, some names that came up are Caesars Entertainment , MGM Resorts International , and Royal Caribbean Group .
Estimates of EPS for GM have risen by about 26%. It generated sales in the second quarter of $44.7 billion, higher than the expected $42.1 billion. Even though operating margins fell short of what was expected because costs were higher than expected, GM sold enough cars and had enough revenue to post EPS of $1.91, above the expected $1.86.