Rising inflation and interest rates have made life difficult for shareholders of ASX retail shares in 2022.
The first thing most people do when their budgets get tighter is buy fewer things at the stores or online. That isn't so good for retail businesses.
But with an estimated $6.2 billion spend on Black Friday last month, and a potential peak in the inflation rate boding well for Christmas sales, maybe retail shares will turn around next year.
In fact, the Fool's own chief investment officer Scott Phillips says it's the right time to look around for beaten-down investments in the retail space.
He points out that many high-quality retail shares are "way too cheap right now", with a number of them trading on single-digit price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios.
Let's look at the top-performing ASX retail shares over the month of November.
This data comes from S&P Global Market Intelligence showing share price gains among retailers with a minimum market cap of $100 million. The figures are taken from the closing price on 31 October to the closing price on 30 November.
Supply Network Limited (ASX: SNL)
The top-performing ASX retail share in November was Supply Network with a 22.9% share price gain. Wow! The aftermarket auto parts supplier hit an all-time high in November at $13.45 per share. This followed a positive update on 25 November at the company's annual general meeting (AGM). Chair Gregory Forsyth told shareholders that trading momentum in FY23 "remained strong". Assuming current trends continue, the company expects revenue of $116 million to $118 million for the first half of FY23, with profit after tax in the range of $12 million to $12.5 million. He said it was likely that "all of the financial targets and most of the development objectives detailed in our business plan to FY2024 will be met or exceeded by the end of the current financial year".
The Supply Network share price closed at $12.31 on Friday, down 4.6%.
Accent Group Ltd (ASX: AX1)
November's next best-performing ASX retail share was shoe retailer Accent Group, up 21.6%. The company presented a trading update at its AGM on 11 November, as well as an investor presentation. As my Fool colleague James reported, the company has had a stronger-than-expected start to FY23. For the first 18 weeks of the financial year, total group-owned sales were up 52% compared to the prior corresponding period (pcp). The company's recent focus on improving gross margins has paid off, with a 570 basis-point increase pcp. James himself thinks Accent is cheap after an almost 30% slide in its share price this year to date. He likes that the company's products are youth-orientated and notes that it's trading on an attractive P/E of 12.6 times estimated FY23 earnings, according to analysis from Goldman Sachs.
The Accent share price closed at $1.77 on Friday, up 0.86%.
Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX: MYR)
The third-best ASX retail share in November was Myer with a share price gain of 15.7%. The department store operator got a nice ongoing bump to its share price following the AGM on 10 November. In a presentation, Myer CEO John King said the first 13 weeks of FY23 represented the "best sales start on record" since FY04. Sales growth was up almost 53% on the pcp in FY22, he said.
The Myer share price closed at 72 cents on Friday, up 0.69%.
