Discount retail, beverages, household products and education services.
| Symbol | Company | Industry | Price | 1‑day | 1‑month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMT | Walmart | Discount Stores | $111.85 | -0.20% | -0.32% |
| COST | Costco Wholesale | Discount Stores | $947.82 | -0.14% | +3.98% |
| KO | The Coca-Cola | Beverages - Non-Alcoholic | $87.05 | +0.23% | +5.35% |
| PG | The Procter & Gamble | Household & Personal Products | $145.79 | -0.80% | +0.02% |
| PEP | PepsiCo | Beverages - Non-Alcoholic | $139.02 | +0.42% | +0.84% |
| TGT | Target | Discount Stores | $149.70 | +1.78% | +13.18% |
| EDU | New Oriental Education & Technology Group | Education & Training Services | $56.43 | -0.70% | +15.94% |
| TAL | TAL Education Group | Education & Training Services | $12.38 | -0.64% | +19.96% |
| GOTU | Gaotu Techedu | Education & Training Services | $1.83 | -3.68% | -0.54% |
| SNDL | SNDL | Beverages - Wineries & Distilleries | $1.23 | +2.50% | -6.11% |
Consumer Defensive holds the businesses that sell what households buy regardless of the cycle: groceries and discount retail, beverages, household and personal care products. Demand for these is close to inelastic, which produces steady revenue and, as a direct consequence, very little growth.
Because volumes barely move, almost all of the variation in results comes from price and mix rather than from units sold. That makes input costs unusually important — a move in commodity, packaging or freight costs lands on a business that cannot sell more to compensate and can only reprice at the risk of losing shelf share to private label. Global brands add a currency layer on top, since a large share of profit is earned in currencies other than the reporting one.
The split between selling more units and charging more for them is the single most revealing disclosure in the sector, because price-led growth without volume is borrowed from future share.
Agricultural commodities, packaging and distribution costs hit gross margin directly and can only be recovered through pricing months later.
In periods when household budgets tighten, trade-down to retailer brands takes volume from branded manufacturers and gives it to the discounters in the same sector.
For multinationals, a stronger reporting currency reduces reported growth even when the underlying business is unchanged.
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