Chewy ($CHWY) shares are roaring, up more than 60% in 2020 as people shelter-in-place, adopt more pets, and turn their social circle into adorable furry animals now that having friends is unadvisable.
Alternative data reflects an increase in attention and engagement for Chewy - and, if it's enough to translate into an earnings beat when the Floridian pet retailer announces earnings Tuesday, June 9, it could mean a swing into the black. For now, analysts are expecting losses of 11 cents per share when it reveals results, however.
The two peaks of social chatter for Chewy on Facebook have come during the pandemic - something a lot of other retail brands would love to be able to say. Further (not shown) it's closing in on multi-year highs, and comes at an unseasonable time, suggesting that Chewy has successfully latched onto new pet owners' smartphones that brought home a dog or cat to pass the time in quarantine.
After a sustained period where Chewy would not cut job postings, it looks as if that figure has recently gone negative on the year. However, it has added hundreds of staffers according to its LinkedIn headcount (not shown), amounting to an increase of nearly 20%. Perhaps some of those job postings have simply been filled.
So far this year, ratings in the Google Play Store have grown in number for Chewy's app by more than 39%. That's the good news. The bad news is, that as of recently, Chewy users have increasingly registered dissatisfaction with the app, and its score - while still high, at nearly 4.8-out-of-5 - began to decline in recent weeks.
We've seen plenty of other companies that have digitally-enabled offerings many competitors can't match, gain trajectory in the pandemic - but now, America is chomping at the bit to get off lockdown. Whether or not people keep ordering pet supplies to their home, will be another factor Chewy has to confront in the post-pandemic US.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.