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/

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.

Next: Nomura increases target price from 3900p to 4450p keeping its buy recommendation

Next: Cantor Fitzgerald raises target price from 3500p to 4000p and keeps its hold recommendation. Deutsche Bank moves target price from 4200p to 4600p maintaining a buy rating.

to my mind this is NOW a far far better company that ASC .... just wish it was not quite so heavyweight