Billionaire Richard Chilton’s Favorite Retail Stocks Include Home Depot

$14 billion market cap auto parts retailer AutoZone, Inc. (NYSE:AZO) was another of Chilton’s favorite retail stocks. Demand for replacement parts seems to be more or less independent of the broader economy, and so AutoZone’s beta is 0.2. While the earnings multiples are not particularly high, the business has been struggling recently with slight declines in sales and net income. Billionaire Andreas Halvorsen and his team at Viking Global initiated a position of over 580,000 shares last quarter (check out more stocks Viking Global was buying).

Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ:COST), another retailer with generally limited exposure to overall consumer demand, was another retail pick; Chilton added shares and closed December with over 560,000 shares in its portfolio. Warren Buffett also likes Costco, with Berkshire Hathaway having 4.3 million shares according to its own 13F (see Buffett’s stock picks). In the fiscal quarter ending in November 2012, the first of Costco’s fiscal year, a combination of sales growth and higher margins drove earnings up 30% from its levels a year ago. Costco carries trailing and forward P/Es of 25 and 20, respectively.

Chilton increased its stake in Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR) by 39% between the beginning of October and the end of 2012. Home Depot turns out to be the lone bullish investment on this list, as Dollar Tree is of course another low beta retailer (specifically, the beta is 0.2). Dollar Tree has also been experiencing strong growth on both top and bottom lines, and as with Dollar General the market may be underestimating future prospects given that the earnings multiples are in the teens. Tiger Cub John Griffin’s Blue Ridge Capital was also buying Dollar Tree in Q4.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.