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/

26 Nov Canaccord... 7,500.00 Buy
26 Nov JP Morgan... 7,100.00 Neutral

Ex dividend Thurs 4 Dec 50p

2 Dec Citigroup 7,700.00 Buy

UK retail sales growth hits 26 year high but Next suffers a downgrade

By Ian Lyall

December 19 2014, 2:13pm
Pictured, a busy Northumberland Street in Newcastle, where this weekend will be the busiest of the year for the city's retailers.
Pictured, a busy Northumberland Street in Newcastle, where this weekend will be the busiest of the year for the city's retailers.


Retail sales growth accelerated at its fastest pace for almost 26 years according to the CBI’s latest monthly figures covering the crucial run-up to Christmas.

The survey of 122 firms covers the fortnight ending December 11 and includes the sales-boosting effects of Black Friday.

Black Friday price-cuts were embraced more widely by more UK retailers than ever before, and discounting played an important part in helping sales, encouraging more customers into stores and online to buy more widely.

"The strongest sales growth for a quarter of a century is a big boost for retailers as they head towards the climax of the crucial pre-Christmas trading period," said Barry Williams, CBI Distributive Trades Survey chairman.

The figures didn’t stop Jefferies downgrading Next. The brokerage reckons its online competitive advantage may be diminishing somewhat.

At the same time it upgraded Debenhams, once the sector basket case.

It makes some very interesting points about the landscape of the industry, saying successful operators now have multiple channels to market: bricks and mortar, online, deliveries and click and collect.

It points out that simply having a web presence just doesn’t cut it anymore and the traditional skills of good shop-keeping count for a great deal – even in this era of electronic commerce.

Underlining this point are the respective performances of Primark (owned by Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) and ASOS (LON:ASOS), the online fashion group.

The former is the sector’s best performer despite having no online presence, while the latter is the worst.

While Jefferies has carried out a comprehensive survey of shopping trends, it has chosen to focus primarily on just three stocks: Next (LON:NXT), Debenhams (LON:DEB) and Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS).

For Next, Jefferies is predicting a slowdown in sales growth and a contraction of profit margins, so has downgraded its recommendation to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’, while crimping its price target to £60 a share.

Debenhams, meanwhile, ‘fared reasonably well’ in the Jefferies survey of retailers’ services with a significant improvement in its deliver and click and collect options.

Financially, things are improving too, it said, with gross margins on the up and online costs heading in the opposite direction.

Upgrading to ‘buy’, Jefferies reckons Debs is worth 85p a share.

Finally, Marks & Spencer remains a ‘buy’, although the price target has been tickled a little higher to 550p a share.

“M&S fared poorly in our July survey despite a net 29% of consumers saying they liked the new website,” Jefferies said.

“Some execution issues are likely to persist (such as delivery delays following Black Friday) but we see grounds for optimism now that the tablet mobile website has been relaunched and M&S has significantly improved its delivery offer.”

++ Elsewhere in the sector, Barclays has downgraded grocer Sainsbury to ‘equal weight’ from ‘overweight’.

Festive update due 30 Dec.

December 2014 Trading Statement

Next beats the system yet again :-)

it's a real heavyweight, but of the retailers, it consistently performs .... and just as importantly, announces any actual or potential problems well in advance instead of trying to hide them in the results

30 Dec Cantor... 7,100.00 Buy

Cantor Fitzgerald hails Next's festive trading, says outlook positive

Tue, 30 December 2014

Cantor Fitzgerald hails Next's festive trading, says outlook positive


Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald have welcomed Next's better-than-expected festive trading update, saying prospects for its business remain good despite the downturn caused by the mild autumn weather.
Next said it now expected full-year profits to be within £10m either side of £775m, £5m ahead of the midpoint profit guidance it issued in October and 11.5% up on last year's figure. Earnings per share are set to be up 13.5% on a year ago. It also declared a fourth special dividend of 50p per share.

The company said it expected a tough task in the first half of 2015/16 to match the performance in the same period last year. But it said it should be easier to do at least as well as it did in the second half of 2014/15 due to the weaker autumn sales.

Cantor highlighted the performance of the company's Directory online business, which increased sales in the year to date by 12.9% and by 7.5% between 28 October and 24 December. Shop sales were up 0.5% and 4.6% respectively.

The broker said: "There will be relief all around that the trading update was better than expected both in retail and the Directory.

"The valuation of the Directory, following recent IPOs is not, in our view, properly reflected in the Next rating."

Cantor said Next's online business should continue to benefit from growth in online shopping, an increase in customer numbers, range improvements and overseas opportunities.

The broker, which has a 'buy' recommendation and a 7,100p target price on Next, added: "Our view is that the current slippage is completely due to the mild weather, the underlying trend for consumption remains positive and the comparatives for next year ease."

Shares in Next had risen 225p or 3.45% to 6740p at 10:47 in London.

31 Dec Deutsche Bank 6,700.00 Hold

Website woes to take sparkle out of Britain's biggest clothing firm Marks & Spencer, while rival Next reaps the rewards of being streamline online


http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2893714/Website-woes-sparkle-Britain-s-biggest-clothing-firm-Marks-Spencer-rival-reaps-rewards-streamline-online.html

5 Jan Credit Suisse 7,010.00 Neutral

9 Jan Investec 6,800.00 Hold

Ex dividend Thursday 15 Jan 50p

Short 6984, stop not bad here.

Doing too many bits i dont want so not waiting for stop, early out -20

puke them nicely,100 pts in 10 min, good to see short idea right there was good, need bigger stop next time.

Negative to the other brokers -19 Jan Espirito... 5,500.00 Sell

for myself, i still very much like the company, and infinitely more so over SDG

NXT's christmas figures were excellent and i like that they are very upfront if they feel they are running into headwinds