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's price target lifted to price of a cheap suit by Credit Suisse

By John Harrington

January 17 2014, 11:06am
'We see few near term concerns regarding our 14/15 forecasts,' Credit Suisse said.


Credit Suisse is comfortable with its near-term forecasts for fashion firm Next (LON:NXT) but sees challenges further down the road.

Credit Suisse is forecasting 6% profit before tax growth and 12% earnings per share growth for fiscal 2014/15, putting the stock on a prospective price/earnings ratio of (PER) 16.

With a dividend yield of 5.5% and a medium-term PE/total shareholder return ratio of 1.2, the shares are not expensive versus the retailer's peers, the broker said, as it increased its 12-month target price to £65 from £55.

Long-term assumptions are "demanding", however, the broker argues.

"Next Brand EBIT [underlying earnings] margins are near 20%, which is frequently a watershed in retail, and, given the relatively low sales growth, we believe the valuation discounts these margins into maturity, driven by positive brand LFL [like-for-like] sales and a benign gross margin environment, coupled with 21% tax rates, the lowest in 20 years."

The broker's rating is "neutral".

"The shares should be supported at £60, our estimated average buyback threshold over the next 12 months and/or 5.7% prospective dividend yield," Credit Suisse believes.

Next shares currently trade at around £61.80.

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What Are NEXT plc’s Dividend Prospects Like Beyond 2014?
Fool.co.uk
By Royston Wild | Fool.co.uk – 3 hours ago



Today I am looking at British clothing and homeware retailer NEXT (Dusseldorf: NXG.DU - news) 's (LSE: NXT) dividend outlook past 2014.

A fashionable income selection

NEXT has punched mammoth earnings expansion over each of the past four years, recovering strongly from the fallout of the 2008/2009 financial crisis and subsequent impact on spenders' budgets. Indeed, the company has seen earnings grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.1% since 2010, and this excellent growth has delivered compound growth of 12.3% in the dividend.

Promisingly, the City's number crunchers expect earnings growth to grow 17% in the year concluding January 2014, with advances of 8% pencilled in for each of the following two years.

Given these sterling earnings projections, NEXT is expected to keep dividends rolling at breakneck speed. A 17.1% advance is expected for this year, to 123p per share, followed by an 11.1% increase in 2015 to 136.7p. A dividend of 150.9p per share is predicted for 2016, a 10.4% rise.

The company's robust earnings outlook creates cast-iron dividend coverage well above the safety watermark of 2 times prospective earnings — indeed, cover comes out at 2.8 times through to the end of 2016. Moreover, NEXT's ability to generate shedloads of cash should also boost investor faith in dividend projections for this period, with free cash flow leaping to £239m during February-July versus £127m in the corresponding 2012 period.

However, dividend projections through to 2016 create yields substantially below the FTSE 100′s forward average of 3.1%, as well as those of high-street rivals Marks & Spencer Group and Debenhams (Other OTC: DBHSY - news) , which sport prospective readouts of 3.6% and 4.2%. By comparison, NEXT's dividend yields for the next three years come in at 2%, 2.2% and 2.4% respectively.

However, I believe that NEXT's impressive cash-generative qualities make it a stunning income pick. Although yields remain below those of the wider market, the company plans to continue compensating for this via special dividends and buybacks.

Indeed, the retailer commented in January's trading update plans to distribute a 50p per share special dividend following bubbly post-Christmas results. And the business added that “in the year ahead, we currently expect to generate and return a further £300m of surplus cash” which should it intends to distribute to shareholders.

As NEXT continues to defy the effects of declining footfall on the UK High Street, and make stunning progress in online and foreign marketplaces, I fully expect shareholder returns to keep bubbling higher well into the long term.

Next hands further special dividend to shareholders

Fri, 31 January 2014



Investors in fashion chain Next are to get another special dividend because its shares are trading at too high a level to return cash in buybacks.

Next, which announced on January 3rd that it would pay a special dividend of 50p per share to shareholders on February 3rd, said it would make a further special dividend payment of 50p on May 1st.

The company said it was paying the special dividend instead of share buybacks, which it has temporarily halted because its shares have traded since late October above the level at which it said it would buy back shares.

The first special dividend was worth £75m in total, which equalled the cash it would have used for buybacks between October last year and this month.

Next said in January that it expected to generate and return a further £300m of spare cash, which would be returned either through further quarterly special dividends or buybacks, depending on the share price.

It said it was returning the cash because it already generates more money than it can invest productively in the business.

In January, the group raised its yearly profit outlook after unveiling pre-Christmas sales that topped its own forecast, making it one of the high street's festive trading winners.

It said total sales rose 11.9& between November 1st and Christmas Eve, helped by its policy of not cutting prices before Christmas.

Shares fell 0.88% to 6,185p by 12:18 in London.

Back on short watch, upside looks to have stalled, potential head and shoulders shorting formation being built..

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Next Plc Could Help You Retire Early
Fool.co.uk
By Peter Stephens | Fool.co.uk – 9 hours ago
.

next


A key theme for 2014 could be the rate of earnings per share (EPS) growth.

Indeed, it seems as though many market participants are expecting 2014 to be the year when the UK and world economy grew faster than since before the credit crunch (judging by various forecasts, at any rate). That's because the price to earnings (P/E) ratios of a significant number of companies have been expanded over the last year or so.

One example of this is UK clothing retailer Next (Dusseldorf: NXG.DU - news) (LSE: NXT). It has gained in popularity as the market has demanded companies with strong track records of growth and tempting forecast growth potential, too.

On this front Next does not disappoint. The last four years have seen EPS growth average over 17% per year which, when the challenging nature of the UK and European economy is taken into account, shows just how well Next has performed.

Furthermore, Next is forecast to deliver steady, if unspectacular, EPS growth rates of 8% per annum over the next two years. This is slightly ahead of the average forecast for the FTSE 100 over the next two years of between 4% and 7%, so is an impressive figure even if it is less than half the amount the company has posted, on average, over the last four years.

As well as being a relatively strong growth stock, Next continues to offer an income component of total return that could still tempt some income-seeking investors.

Certainly, a current yield of just under 2% is nothing to shout about but, crucially, Next is forecast to increase the amount it pays in dividends (on a per share basis) by just under 25% over the next two years. This is far in excess of the majority of other UK-listed major stocks and, although the yield of less than 2% is considerably below the yield of the FTSE 100, it could be much higher in a couple of years' time.

Indeed, if Next's share price stays where it is, the increases in dividends per share could mean that shares yield around 2.4% in 2015/16. This, combined with a strong track record of EPS growth and above-average growth prospects for earnings in the near-term, mean that Next could help you retire early.

crikey!
took my eye off this one and it's whizzed away

Yes, under £55 Jan 1st.

Next: Bank of America increases target price from 7000p to 7400p maintaining a buy recommendation.

Telegraph
By Telegraph Staff | Telegraph – 3 hours ago

Annual profits for clothing retailer Next (Dusseldorf: NXG.DU - news) should overtake its rival, Marks & Spencer, for the first time this week.

= Next profits to overtake Marks & Spencer (Other OTC: MAKSF - news) =

Annual profits for clothing retailer Next should overtake its rival, Marks & Spencer, for the first time this week.

Next, led by chief executive Lord Wolfson, increased its forecast for annual profits in January after enjoying a stellar Christmas on the high street.

Lord Wolfson said in the festive period trading update that annual profits would be between £684m and £700m. That means annual profits will increase more than 10pc compared with last year and should beat M&S, which is forecast to post pre-tax profits of £626m for the year to the end of March. When Next reports its final results on Thursday, analysts will be keen to hear whether the uptick in sales enjoyed by Next in the run-up to Christmas has continued so far in 2014.

The City will also be looking for an update on Lord Wolfson’s plans for Next’s cash pile. The company’s better-than-expected performance in recent months means it has accumulated surplus cash, so Lord Wolfson said Next will distribute some of that cash to shareholders through a series of special dividends.

Sunday Times

Shareholders of fashion retailer Next are set fair, says the Inside the City column.

Next has bought back shares every year since 2001 and it has taken one-fifth of its stock off the market in the last five years.


The scarcity of stock — and surging profits — led to a fivefold increase in the share price.


But Next has shifted its plan. As long as the stock is trading at such elevated levels, chief executive Lord Wolfson believes it makes more sense to spend the money on special dividends instead. The company paid its first one of 50p this month. Another is coming in May.


All the above is, of course, great news for investors.





Of all the retailers that the asset manager Investec covers, Next is the most profitable, with margins of nearly 19 per cent. Analysts expect about £700m in profits for the year, up from £620m in 2012.


Wolfson has plenty of incentive to keep up the momentum. He owns £100m of shares and is on an incentive deal that last year paid him £4.6m.


The more profitable Next Directory mail order and online arm, meanwhile, is booming, posting an annual earnings increase of 13 per cent.

If you are not already an investor, don’t pile in hoping for big gains. But if you are happy with a more modest increase in underlying value, this is for you.

Next: Jefferies raises target price from 7000p to 7500p and keeps a buy recommendation.

How Next has usurped M&S to rule the high street
Telegraph
By Graham Ruddick | Telegraph – 10 hours ago

Clothing retailer to report larger profits than Marks & Spencer (Other OTC: MAKSF - news) for first time

It has not been a good week for the traditional names in British retailing.

Billions of pounds were wiped off the value of the leading supermarkets because of fears that a price war to combat the rise of discounters and online shopping will erode profit margins.

However, there is one high street stalwart that is thriving in the face of the retail revolution. Next (Dusseldorf: NXG.DU - news) has quietly usurped Marks & Spencer as the clothing king of the high street.

Next shares are up 59pc in the past year and an extraordinary 469pc in the past five years. At its closing price on Friday night, Next was valued at £10.2bn, compared with £7.5bn for M&S.

This week, Next will report larger annual profits than rival M&S for the first time in its relatively young history. After sales rose by 11.9pc during the vital Christmas period despite rivals suffering from widespread discounting Next increased its forecast for annual profits from £650m-£680m to £684m-£700m.

The reasons for the success of Next are not immediately obvious when you walk into its stores. Its clothing is regularly dismissed as uninspiring and it has sites on ailing high streets across the country.

Yet, despite only being founded in 1982, it has become as popular with customers as its 130-year-old rival.

Lord Wolfson, chief executive, and his management team are hugely admired across the industry. At Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct (Frankfurt: A0MK5S - news) , Next is regularly seen as the benchmark for running an efficient retail business across stores and the internet.

The retailer was founded by George Davies, who is also known for George at Asda and Per Una at M&S. At Next he created a new destination for women looking for smart office clothing or casualwear.

However, it was transformed into a FTSE 100 business by Sir David Jones, who succeeded Davies in 1988 at a time when Next was floundering financially.

Lord Wolfson, who worked as Sir David’s assistant, built on this when he became chief executive in 2001.

Perhaps more than any other FTSE retailer, Next is focused on the long term, rather than quarterly trading updates. Lord Wolfson refuses to report like-for-like sales, so Next only reports total sales.

One look at the executive management team confirms this focus. Lord Wolfson joined Next 23 years ago, while Christos Angelides, the highly regarded product director, joined as a trainee menswear buyer in 1986. Meanwhile, finance director David Keens has been on the Next board for 23 years, Jane Shields, the sales and marketing director, started as a shop assistant in 1985 and Michael Law, the operations director, worked in a Next Directory call centre in 1995.

A senior retail figure close to the board said that Next has benefited from being out of the public eye in Leicester, which has led to the creation of the so-called “Enderby family”, named after its Leicestershire base.

The source said that Next is operated with a “single-minded purpose” to grow earnings per share. “They are unwilling to be diverted by anything that will detract from that,” the source added.

This has allowed the business to justify long-term investments in key infrastructure, such as IT and the supply chain. Next also refused to join in with the rest of the high street by cutting prices before Christmas, sticking to its strategy of holding only two major promotional events every year.

Lord Wolfson, a Conservative peer, is engaging company but is deeply analytical. He is renowned for illustrating Next’s results with graphs to explain the health of the retailer and the economy.

“He is a brilliant CEO, if a little command and control,” the source said. “But he is Next. All decisions rest with him.”

Those decisions include committing early to online retailing and services such as click-and-collect. In the new generation of retailing, Next has benefited enormously from already having a catalogue business, Next Directory. The company knows how to deliver fashion from its warehouses to a customer’s home efficiently.

Fraser Ramzan, an analyst at Nomura, said: “In Directory the introduction of free next-day-to-store delivery if ordered by 10pm has been a service proposition that others have struggled to match and the group’s online participation is already higher than most.”

In the pre-Christmas period, Next Directory sales soared by 21pc. The Directory offers unsecured credit to customers to make purchases, an attractive proposition for cash-strapped households.

Shareholders are now basking in this success after Lord Wolfson pledged to distribute Next’s unused cash through special dividends.

There is likely to be more success to come. The company’s clothing range this Christmas was considered a step-up in quality and fashion across womenswear, menswear and childrenswear.

Next is also investing in its homewares range. The company’s new stores are increasingly located out-of-town and look more like department stores than clothes shops, with some including garden centres.

Next is already taking on M&S, but John Lewis is also in its sights. Rivals bewa

Thursday -
Also in the diary are Next’s (LON:NXT) final results.

The clothing retailer has been one of the standout performers on the High Street, which has in general been in decline.

Shares have hit all-time highs recently following bumper Christmas sales that were “significantly ahead of our expectations”.

In that trading update, the company raised its profit guidance to between £684mln and £700mln for the 12 months to January 25.

The bottom end of this range would represent 10% growth, while the upper end would imply a 12.6% increase.

Retail guru Nick Bubb will be glued to the numbers and says that if there are any surprises, it is likely to be a welcome one.

“After a terrific Q4, the PBT [pre-tax profit] guidance range moved up to £684m-700m and, if the past is any guide, then it would be safe to look for at least £700m, versus the £615m-665m range set out 12 months ago,” he said in a note.

“We will also be interested to hear about the prospects for more special dividends and the thinking behind Next’s new branded fashion catalogue Label.”


http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/market_reports/66835/day-ahead-fed-decision-reaction-next-results-66835.html

on the basis of wall street tonight, it is likely that it will be possible to buy NXT cheaper tomorrow, almost regardless of the numbers .... worth remembering

The chart is impressive....even during the bad times the sp stood its ground ...remarkable.....missed out here.....damn.....never was keen on the retailers.....my mistake....

Results For The Year Ending January 2014

http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4776088

Market pleasing - Next Plc FY pretax profit rises 11.8% to £695.2m

Next enjoys strong sales and profit growth

StockMarketWire.com

Fashion retailer Next said it has had another good year, achieving 5.4% growth in sales to £3.74bn and 11.8% growth in underlying profit before tax to £695.2m.

Strong cash generation enabled it to buy back 3.8% of shares outstanding without increasing financial leverage which, along with a lower tax rate, resulted in earnings per share (EPS) growing much faster than profits.

In the year to January 2014, underlying post-tax EPS grew by 23% to 366.1p.

Full year dividend is being increased in line with EPS, to 129p in total.

John Barton, Chairman, said:

'The year to January 2014 was a great year for NEXT. Underlying earnings per share grew by 23% to 366p and we propose to increase our full year ordinary dividends by 23% to 129p in total. This is the fifth consecutive year that our earnings per share and ordinary dividend have grown by over 15%. In addition, in February we paid a special dividend of 50p a share and have announced a further special dividend of 50p to be paid in May.

Sales for NEXT Directory, our online and catalogue business, grew by 12.4% narrowing the gap with NEXT Retail, which grew by 1.7%. The two businesses are complementary and support each other in an effective and efficient way. Operating margins in both businesses increased during the year. The Group's underlying profit before tax rose 11.8% to £695m.

Cash flow was again strong and we continued our share buybacks, purchasing 6.2 million shares at an average price of £47.40 and reducing our shares in issue by 3.8%. During the year we returned £461m to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends.

Our share price again performed well, rising by 55% to £62.80. As a result of the increase, we stopped buying back our own shares at the end of October and have instead started to return surplus cash to shareholders through special dividends. We will reconsider buybacks when to do so would give an effective 8% return on the cash invested.

During the year there have been a number of changes to the Board. Andrew Varley, who had been a director for 23 years, retired from the Board in May 2013. Andrew has been with NEXT for 29 years, serving in various senior roles. On behalf of the Board I would like to thank him for all he has done for NEXT, particularly as our Group Property Director.

Christine Cross, who has made a much valued and active contribution to the Group as a Non-Executive Director, has served for 9 years and will step down from the Board at the AGM in May. We are currently searching for a new non-executive and will make an announcement in due course. Jonathan Dawson, our Senior Independent Director who has also served 9 years, has agreed to stay on the Board for one further year.

I am delighted to welcome onto the Board Michael Law, our Group Operations Director, and Jane Shields, our Group Sales and Marketing Director. Both joined the Board last July.

The strength of our Group is built on the hard work and productivity of our management team and all the people who work for NEXT. I would like to thank them all for their contribution during the year and especially for the excellent performance through the busy Christmas period.

That performance gives us a solid platform for 2014. Our strategy remains the same, focused on our products, our profitability and returning cash to our shareholders. Notwithstanding the continued pressure on the UK consumer, we anticipate another year of growth for NEXT.

Next: Deutsche Bank raises target price from 6100p to 6300p and retains its hold recommendation. Nomura increases target price from 6500p to 7025p and maintains a buy recommendation. Citi takes target price from 7000p to 7400p and leaves its buy recommendation unaltered. Barclays increases target price from 5650p to 6200p and retains an equal-weight rating.

UBS hikes target price for Next by a quarter

Tue, 25 March 201


UBS has hiked its target price for Next by nearly a quarter after the High Street retailer raised its guidance for the current financial year.

Alongside its annual results last week, Next said it now expects 4-8% growth in Brand sales for the year ending January 2015, compared with the 1-4% estimate it gave the year before.

UBS has lifted its target from 5,650p to 7,000p, but kept a ‘neutral’ rating on the stock.

The shares trade at 17 times earnings for the 2014 calendar year, which UBS said is a modest premium to the sector and well ahead of the stock’s long-term average.

“However, given strong and stable cash flows, and international potential, we think a premium is justified,” it said.

UBS pointed out that Next’s Brand sales growth in the year just gone was the strongest since 2006.

“As well as improving sales trends, what marks Next out is the ability to trade full price, which helps gross margin, brand strength and gifting sales.

“As its original customer base ages (the chain was aimed at 20-30 year old women at launch 30 years ago), Next has also succeeded in filling the pipe at the younger end through focusing on fashion as well as style, and widening the appeal of the brand to other product categories.”

The stock was 1.1% higher at 6,790p by 10:43 on Tuesday