Companies Set To Make the Most Money During the Coronavirus CrisisA crisis typically comes with a variety of threats to people and resources alike. However, those threats also tend to create additional opportunities. When things are in bad straits, businesses already best positioned to address the issues at hand have a unique chance to demonstrate the advantages of their products on a mass scale. That’s not necessarily a reflection of cynical executives trying to profit off others’ pain, rather it’s the simple reality that being in the right place at the right time is sometimes the biggest boost for any business. Right now, any number of companies that built their business models around communicating remotely or delivering products to people’s homes are seeing a huge new interest in their services, not to mention the grocery stores that benefited from that mid-March shopping binge. But which companies are in the best position to give people what they need in these trying times? While the picture will be clearest in a few months when earnings reports roll in, GOBankingRates is getting ahead of that curve by combing through company press releases and news to identify those that are reporting the most notable jumps in business. Presented alongside information on their stock performance during the time from March 9 to April 8, this should help give you a better sense of which companies are in position to reap the greatest financial rewards from the coronavirus pandemic. Last updated: April 10, 2020 The Company: Activision BlizzardAs Americans keep looking for new ways to connect with each other even while remaining at home, the sort of online multiplayer video games Blizzard is known for are proving a popular option. The company launched its first free-to-play first-person shooter — Call of Duty: Warzone — on March 10 and drew 30 million players within the first 10 days, what Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad told CNBC was the fastest growth for a nonmobile game ever. The Stats
Also See: 50 Stocks That Have Suffered the Biggest Losses During the Coronavirus Scare The Company: AmazonAmerica was already in the process of a long-term transition toward online retail, and that process might have been greatly accelerated by this crisis — with many people potentially making the jump far sooner than they otherwise might have. Over just three days from March 14 to March 17, daily visitors jumped by 5.18 million to 73.55 million visitors, per traffic data source SimilarWeb Inc., part of a trend that had Amazon sales growing about 20% across all of its brands at the beginning of March. The Stats
The Company: Campbell SoupA hot bowl of soup is always a comfort, and the fact that canned soup lasts basically forever made it among the top products people sought out during the shopping binge. Orders for cases of soup were up over 350% in the week ending March 20 compared to the same week in 2019. The Stats
The Company: CloroxMost Americans have been thinking a lot more about the microbiome than they had in the past, and it’s helped Clorox and its 50% market share for disinfecting wipes. Shares of the company are up by around 20% this year — almost exactly as much as the S&P 500 was down for the first quarter. The Stats
The Company: CostcoJust how much better Costco is doing is still an open question, but the early signs indicate that the shopping binge benefited them specifically. The company’s earnings report for the three-month period ending with February showed a 13.8% jump in net sales, and that was before the biggest rush to the stores occurred in mid-March. Costco investors could have a lot to look forward to in the next earnings report. Don’t Miss: 16 Real People Affected By the Coronavirus Give Their Best Financial Advice The Stats
The Company: DrizlyOne major shift in consumer behavior isn’t necessarily just about people consuming more. Plenty of goods that people might normally consume when they’re out are now seeing most of their business shift to people consuming at home. As such, alcohol e-retailer Drizly has clearly benefitted from the statewide bans to restaurants and bars, with sales more than quadrupling. The StatsThere is no stock information for this company because it is privately owned. The Company: FedExThe boost for online retailers has a ripple effect, as well. With so many people opting to order their stuff online rather than go to the store, major parcel delivery companies stand to benefit as well. And with Amazon halting its new delivery services for non-Amazon packages, FedEx is in even better position to reap the benefits of this change. The Stats
The Company: Johnson & JohnsonWhile Johnson & Johnson likely experienced a boost in sales for a lot of its consumer products, its biggest potential financial gain could come from the less-familiar biopharmaceutical arm. It’s currently developing one of the more promising potential vaccines for the coronavirus, something that could potentially be worth billions should they produce a product that works. The Stats
The Company: KrogerThe retail industry is clearly a tale of two different worlds right now, with grocers and other essential services seeing booming service while the rest of the industry is forced to close throughout most of the country. The company reported that its currently projecting same-store sales growth of over 30% over 2019. Read: Dying Stores That Might Soon Be Gone Forever The Stats
The Company: ModernaGiven the enormous costs to national economies from the coronavirus, any potential cure, vaccine or treatment that could significantly reduce its spread will be worth an enormous amount of money. A company with one of the more promising horses in this race is Moderna, a mid-cap biopharma firm with a potential vaccine that could begin clinical trials as early as this month. The Stats
The Company: NetflixStreaming media viewing has doubled thus far with so many more people stuck at home, and Netflix grabbed a 42% share of that traffic in the last three weeks of March — getting some help with possibly the best-timed release in history when the docuseries “Tiger King” dropped on March 20. The Stats
The Company: NintendoWhile Blizzard might have hardcore gamers locked down with its new “Call of Duty” title, it’s important to remember that more family-friendly fare is also crucial with so many parents having to keep their kids occupied while they work from home. Nintendo’s new installment of its “Animal Crossing” franchise sold nearly 2 million copies in Japan in just its first three days. The Stats
The Company: Regeneron PharmaceuticalsThere might be no higher-stakes race in the history of the pharmaceutical industry than the one playing out right now. Another company with a chance to take the prize? Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. CEO Leonard Schleifer reportedly believes they could have a treatment for COVID-19 “quickly.” The Stats
The Company: RingCentralCompanies that facilitate the capacity for working at home were already riding a wave of growth before this crisis, but it’s likely getting launched into overdrive by this pandemic as thousands of CEOs are realizing that this particular level of flexibility can become a critical piece of infrastructure. That has employers rushing to companies like RingCentral, with CEO Vlad Shmunis reporting to Yahoo Finance a 300% increase in RingCentral app downloads month over month, a 100% jump in online meetings and a 70% spike in messaging. The Stats
The Company: TargetThis is one chain that was, ahem, a target for shoppers looking to stock up on basic goods. The store reported a 20% jump in March sales as compared to last year. The Stats
The Company: WalmartPerhaps no store out there was better positioned to take advantage of the mid-March buying surge than Walmart, which has some 4,700 U.S. stores poised to meet demand. Similar to Target, the company reported that sales appeared to be up about 20% over the same period last year. Find Out: Senior Hours at Walmart, Kroger, Publix, Target and Other Retailers The Stats
The Company: WincAnother company getting a huge boost from people quarantining at home is Winc, an online wine store that delivers to your door. For the week ending March 21, the company reported a nearly sevenfold increase in new signups and a nearly 50% jump in sales. The StatsThere is no stock information available for this company because it is privately owned. The Company: Zoom VideoZoom has quickly become a household name during this crisis, a staple both for working from home and keeping in touch with loved ones. The company has added 2.22 million new users in 2020, already eclipsing its total for the entire 2019 calendar year. The Stats
More From GOBankingRates
Methodology: In order to find which companies are set to make the most money during the coronavirus crisis, GOBankingRates looked at company press releases and articles from industry publications to see which companies have reported increased sales/revenues, drastic new demand for its products and/or new breakthroughs or products in the coronavirus space. Once these companies were highlighted, GOBankingRates used Yahoo Finance’s stock charts and historical data to find the (1) closing price on March 9, 2020, for each applicable company’s stock; (2) closing price on April 8, 2020, for each applicable company’s stock; and (3) the lowest closing price of the month for dates March 9, 2020, through April 8, 2020. Using these three data points, GOBankingRates also found each company’s (4) one-month percent change in stock price and (5) the percent change from lowest closing price to the stock’s April 8, 2020, closing price. All data was collected and up to date as of NYSE closing time on April 8, 2020. This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Companies Set To Make the Most Money During the Coronavirus Crisis |
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