How Badly Is Sears Holdings Performing?

There have been quite a lot of press in the last year about Sears Holdings' problems. Shareholders, especially that bought shares within the last 2 years, likely aren't a happy bunch. But how badly has it actually been performing relative to the competition?

(source: Yahoo! Finance)


The above 2 year chart plots Sears against some of its competitors such as Macy's, JC Penney, Home Depot, and Target. The S&P Retail Index (^RLX) is also shown on the graph.

As you can tell, Sears Holdings has largely been following the broader retail trend. This does not excuse Sears' performance, for great companies stand out from the competition, but it does mean that it isn't doing any worse than the rest. Practically all the retailers (except possibly the ones catering to lower-income shoppers like Wal-mart (WMT)) have been doing poorly given the weakening US economy.

The pattern will be different from longer periods of time (SHLD actually does better) but my point here is to figure out whether Sears has lost its footing. It doesn't seem like it has...

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