NEXT is a UK based retailer offering exciting, beautifully designed, excellent quality

fashion and accessories for men, women and children together with a full range of

homewares# NEXT distributes through three main channels:


■NEXT Retail, a chain of more than 500 stores in the UK and Eire;
■NEXT Directory, a home shopping catalogue and website with around 3 million active customers and international websites serving approximately 50 countries; and
■NEXT International, with almost 200 mainly franchised stores around the world#
Other businesses in the NEXT group include:■NEXT Sourcing, which designs, sources and buys NEXT branded products;
■Lipsy, which designs and sells its own branded younger women's fashion products through retail, internet and wholesale channels; and
The parent company, NEXT plc, is listed on the London Stock Exchange #LSE: NXT#L# and is a member of the FTSE 100 Index# Total revenues for the year ended January 2012 were £3#5 billion with underlying pre-tax profits of £570 million# NEXT's head office is located in Enderby on the outskirts of Leicester, England

http://www.next.co.uk/

The best companies are those run by talented and experienced leaders with strong vested interests in the success of the business, held in check by a board with sound financial and business acumen. Some of the worst investments to hold are those run by executives collecting fat rewards as the underlying business goes to pot.

In this series, I'm assessing the boardrooms of companies within the FTSE 100 (FTSE: ^FTSE - news) (UKX). I hope to separate the management teams that are worth following from those that are not. Today I am looking at Next (Other OTC: NXGPF - news) , the Britain's largest fashion group.

Here are the key directors:



Director Position



John Barton

(non-exec) Chairman



Lord Wolfson of Apsley Guise

Chief Executive



David Keens

Finance Director



Christos Angelides

Product Director



Andrew Varley

Property Director


John Barton joined the board in 2002 and became chairman in 2006. A chartered accountant, his background is in the insurance industry. He was CEO of Jardine Insurance Brokers for 13 years until 1997, and when it merged to form Jardine Lloyd Thompson (LSE: JLT.L - news) he served as chairman for the next four years. He has also been chairman of Brit Insurance, and maintains his connection with the industry as chairman of FTSE 250 (FTSE: ^FTMC - news) insurance broker Catlin.

He also served on the board of Cable and Wireless Worldwide, and was chairman at the time of its demise.

Stronger

No doubt a stronger voice on the board is that of CEO Simon Wolfson, the Tory Peer. The son of former chairman David Wolfson he started working at Next as a sales assistant in 1991 and worked his way up the company, becoming CEO in 2001 at the age of 33. That makes him both one of the youngest FTSE 100 chief executives ever, and currently one of the longest-serving.

Next shares have quadrupled during his tenure. That and the company's reputation for delivering on forecasts and its iconic position on the High Street, coupled with Lord Wolfson's prominence in the Tory party, ensures that he is one of the most listened-to of FTSE leaders.

David Keens has been finance director since 1991. A chartered accountant, he spent seven years in the profession before a nine year-stint in the food industry, joining Next in 1986 as group treasurer.

Fashion

Christos Angelides also joined the company in 1986, initially responsible for sourcing product in Hong Kong. He has held positions as head of menswear and womenswear and was appointed to the board in 2000. In a business driven by the fickleness of fashion he is seen as the product guru who has forged Next's success alongside CEO Simon Wolfson.

Property director Andrew Varley is also long-serving. He joined Next in 1985 after 12 years in retail and commercial property, and joined the board in 1990.

To my mind it's good to see senior functional heads on the board, rather than just a CEO and finance director. But with such long-serving executive team I wonder if the four non-execs -- with neatly balanced backgrounds in investment banking, accountancy, retail and property -- can have much sway.

I analyse management teams from five different angles to help work out a verdict. Here's my assessment:



1. Reputation. Management CVs and track record.Excellent though short of external experience.

Score 3/5



2. Performance. Success at the company.Successful.

Score 4/5



3. Board Composition. Skills, experience, balanceGood mix but executive-dominated.

Score 3/5



4. Remuneration. Fairness of pay, link to performance.Fair. Pay was reduced last year.

Score 4/5



5. Directors' Holdings, compared to their pay.Executives have substantial holdings. CEO's is £58m-worth.

Score 5/5


Overall, Next scores 19 out of 25, a top quartile result. The board is dominated by a long-serving executive team, but looks fit for purpose.

Next: Goldman Sachs raises target price from 3800p to 4100p keeping a neutral rating.

Next is reaping the rewards of having a multi-channel business in place, allowing shoppers to use the web to reserve, collect in store or arrange home delivery, with Next demonstrating that consumers are just as willing to buy clothes online as they are books. Next's Directory business is growing much faster than its retail operation,and the company now expects group profits to be roughly £618m for the full year to January 2013, implying earnings growth of between 14 and 17 per cent.
However, Next warns that rising price inflation ahead of wages means the consumer enviroment will remain subdued - although the group has a tendency to play down expectations and subsequently beat them.

Next: Exane BNP takes price target from 3700p to 4000p and upgrades to neutral

New highs again! @4,046p

1

You can't win them all!

It is incredible though.

dc i was too optimistic giving you top credit for getting all time highs :))

get back on the asos thread, no asos supporters here. Only joking, asos turn tomorrow. :-))

4067 new high

wow spectacular numbers...dc, how dare you not be in...

:-))

Without wishing to be pedantic, the new high was actually 4097.

No thats not being pedantic, your numbers are even better. lol

in 4 years from 800 to 4100 is awesome , big boys undoubtly love one..

I see IC has Next as a hold. The share price has been rising steadily since 1990 when it was valued at just 10p. Thats a far cry from todays 4,098p and a whopping 400-fold increase over two decades. Perhaps thats why non-executive director and seasoned acccountant Steve barber cashed in half his 10,000 shares. At 4,024p apiece, that leaves Mr Barber with a tidy windfall of £201,200. Next shares are now rated on 15 times earnings, which isn't cheap, while its dividend yield is close to historic lows.

No stopping this one at the moment ?

Up £4.50 since the start of the year.Amazing what the small rises each day add up to.

Next: HSBC increases target price from 4100p to 4965p upgrading to overweight.

Should I Buy Marks & Spencer or Next?
By Roland Head | Fool.co.uk – 9 hours ago.. .


High street (BSE: HIGHSTREE.BO - news) retailers Next (Other OTC: NXGPF - news) and Marks & Spencer (Other OTC: MAKSY - news) need no introduction, but as investments, they present very different pictures.

The big winner of the last decade has been Next. The fashion retailer's share price has risen by 418% over the last ten years, while Marks & Spencer has only managed a 22% gain.

It's true that Marks & Spencer was much bigger to begin with, but as Warren Buffett once said, "the investor of today does not benefit from yesterday's growth". Given this, which company looks like the better investment for the next ten years?

Marks & Spencer vs. Next

I'm going to start with a look at a few key statistics that can be used to provide a quick comparison of these two companies, based on their last published results:



Marks & Spencer Next



Market cap

£6.2bn

£6.9bn



Turnover

£9,954m

£3,516m



Operating margin

7.5%

17.7%



Dividend yield

4.4%

2.2%


The big difference between these two companies is their profitability and turnover.

Marks & Spencer turned over nearly £10bn last year, but only 7.5% of this was operating profit. Next's more modest turnover of £3.5bn provided an operating margin of 17.7% -- 2.4 times that of M&S.

Marks & Spencer's main attraction is its dividend yield, which at 4.4%, is well above the FTSE 100 (FTSE: ^FTSE - news) average of 3.1%.

However, even this isn't as good as it looks. Since 2008, M&S' dividend payout has fallen from 22.5p per share to 17p per share. Over the same period, Next has increased its dividend from 55p per share to 93.5p per share. Next has a far stronger record of dividend growth -- a key consideration for income investors.

What's next?

Are the trends we identified above about to change, or should we expect more of the same?

Analysts' forecasts are notoriously unreliable, but FTSE 100 companies generally get the benefit of the most comprehensive analysis, and tend to deliver fewer surprises than smaller companies.

With that in mind, let's take a look at some forward-looking numbers for Marks & Spencer and Next. These apply to the companies' current financial years:



Marks & Spencer Next



Forecast P/E ratio

11.1

13.5



Forecast dividend yield

4.6%

2.7%



Forecast dividend growth

0%

8.4%



Forecast earnings growth

5.6%

10.5%


These figures, which are based on the companies' guidance figures and analysts' forecasts, strongly suggest that nothing much is likely to change this year. Next will outgrow M&S, and M&S will continue to provide an attractive income.

Which share should I buy?

There's no doubt that for growth and long-term income, Next continues to look more attractive than Marks & Spencer.

However, Next's dividend will have to do a lot of growing before it provides the same yield as Marks & Spencer. If, like me, you like the idea of getting an above-average income immediately, then Marks & Spencer may be worth a closer look.