anything under 7 cheap cheap cheap. good div. just paid. chart looks sick

The race for the White House reaches its climax this week and it is poised to be one of the closest contests ever seen in the US.

Elsewhere, in a busy week of financial reporting in the retail industry, most of the attention will be saved for Marks & Spencer.



Mr Bolland has been under pressure after disappointing figures in May, which prompted the company to cut three-year sales growth targets and reshuffle the general merchandise management team. Womenswear remains the area of concern for M&S, with fierce competition compounded by stock management issues that have left the retailer short of bestselling lines.

For the second quarter, analysts are expecting general merchandise like-for-likes sales to fall 2.5pc and food sales to rise 1.5pc.Profit before tax should be around £280m, down more than 10pc on last year. Bethany Hocking, analyst at Investec (EUREX: INVF.EX - news) , said: “Unlike with Next (Berlin: NXG.BE - news) , M&S’s figures do not include the expected strong October. The highly promotional strategy in GM (NYSE: GM - news) is brand-damaging, in our view, we don’t see acceptable returns on £2.4bn capital expenditure in 2013 to 2015 and we expect bid speculation, which has driven the shares higher, to die down.”

Half Yearly Report

Half-year results:

• Group sales1 up 0.9% at £4.7bn
• Underlying profit before tax3 £297m (last year pro-forma4 £307m; reported £315m)
• Underlying basic earnings per share3 14.6p (last year 15.6p)
• Interim dividend 6.2p per share (last year 6.2p)
• Net debt £2.6bn (last year pro-forma4 £2.6bn; reported £2.0bn)

Statutory results:

• Profit before tax £290m (last year £321m)
• Basic earnings per share 14.2p (last year 16.0p)

Went short on the spreads today @ 396.5 stop 410.0

Out for now @ 382.5 + 14.0

Sir Philip Green rumoured to be shopping for M&S
Thu 06 Dec 2012


LONDON (SHARECAST) - Speculation has surfaced that Sir Philip Green, who has sold a 25 per cent stake in his Topshop and Topman chain for 500m pounds to a US private equity outfit, is lining up a bid for Marks & Spencer, whose shares were up in midday trade.

Rik Thakrar, risk manager and senior dealer at Spread Co said: “It is no secret that Sir Philip has long coveted Marks & Spencer, and has wanted to bring his expertise to restore the blue-blooded retailer to former glories.

"Investors are clearly speculating that the Arcadia Chairman will use his newly acquired funds to launch a takeover of M&S. Despite shares being close to a one-month high, the Spread Co dealing desk has recorded a surge in long positions in M&S this morning.”

The buyer of Green’s stake in Topshop and Topman was US private equity group Leonard Green and Partners. It is also likely that any future bid for M&S will involve some form of private equity backing, given the current £6.3bn market cap of M&S.

Green’s last attempt to take over Marks & Spencer failed eight years ago. He offered £9.1bn in a hostile bid, which equated to 400p a share.

At 12.15 Marks & Spencer shares were up 3.3p at 397.6p.

sp falling away again?

Interim Management Statement

MARKS AND SPENCER GROUP PLC
QUARTER 3 2012/13 INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
13 weeks to 29 DECEMBER 2012

· Group sales +0.6% *

· Total UK sales +0.3%:Food +2.7%; GM -2.2%

· Like for like UK sales -1.8%:Food +0.3%; GM -3.8%

· Multi-channel sales +10.8%

· International sales +4.1% *

Just been filled @360 - hmmm.

On edit :- actually filled @356.91!

Does this have further to fall?

Is the Pope a Catholic? :O) Food is unbeatable IMO just a pity about the rest.

Nice intraday bounce.

May help if you are thinking of buying M&S


Should I buy shares in Marks & Spencer?




By Darshini Shah | Thu, 10/01/2013 - 11:43






After leaked results on Wednesday night, Marks and Spencer (MKS) on Thursday confirmed a bigger-than-expected drop in Christmas sales.

Total UK like-for-like sales declined 1.8%, driven by a 3.8% fall in general merchandise like-for-like sales, compared to a 0.3% rise in food like-for-like sales.

Bolland in trouble?

The results leave chief executive Marc Bolland facing difficult questions about the future of M&S, as well as his position.

Bolland joined M&S with much fanfare three years ago, after turning Morrison Supermarkets' (MRW) fortunes around. But has his reputation as a steady decision-maker, rather than a slasher and burner, got the better of him?

General merchandise: "Frumpy, boring and expensive"

The results indicate that M&S has lost sight of its current customers and doesn't know how to attract future customers.

The retailer's first half-profits, published in November, fell for the second year in a row after womenswear sales disappointed. At the time, Bolland promised the clothing ranges would become "much more stylish and more trend-driven".

Louise Cooper of CooperCity summed it up quite nicely when she called M&S's clothing range "frumpy, boring and expensive". She stated: "As a 42-year-old mother, I imagine I am their target customer, but they haven't dressed me in years. Their head of clothes merchandising should be sacked - racks and racks of clothes in warehouse like spaces.

"Go to the Kings Road Marks (as I did pre-Christmas) and it will show you why the company is suffering. This is prime piece of retail real estate surrounded by seriously wealthy consumers, in Chelsea. And yet the racks of clothes are squeezed into a tiny blank space that reminded me of shopping when I was a child in the 70s. Hideous."

Bethany Hocking, analyst at Investec, stressed M&S needs to continue to grow general merchandise online if it is to stem ongoing market-share losses, but also warned that this was a less profitable channel.

However, there is one positive: Bolland insisted that while sales were down, he had decided to protect the group's profit margins rather than embarking on major promotions during the key shopping period, when 7% less had been put on promotion. As a result, guidance for gross margins remained unchanged, at towards the top end of the zero to 25 basis-points range.

Customers want to look younger, so maybe Bolland should take the stores' offering younger. Or if the clothes have to be expensive, then they should be stylish. Whatever Bolland decides, what's clear is that the clothing line needs to be revamped.

Food: Split opinions

The positive growth like-for-like in food showed M&S's products on offer worked over Christmas.

But again, opinion seems divided. M&S is now being challenged by Waitrose at the quality end of the market. At the same time, an Interactive Investor colleague commented: "I wouldn't do my weekly shop [at M&S]. If I wanted a posh meal once a week, I'd eat out."

Cyclical issues

And the general retailer is not just facing structural issues. Cyclical factors are negatively impacting the retail sector given pessimistic consumers, declining real incomes and rising real prices.

M&S itself acknowledged that there would be difficult times ahead: "We expect the pressure on consumers' disposable incomes to continue in 2013," it said in its statement. "As a result we remain cautious about the outlook for the year ahead."

So, without a change in strategy, M&S risks being left in the lost middle ground, with the likes of John Lewis, Waitrose and Sainsbury's (SBRY) stealing market share from above in pricier products, and Associated British Foods' (ABF) Primark and lower-priced rivals such as Aldi and Tesco (TSCO) pinching share from value-conscious customers.

Internal problems?

To add to the challenges, Philip Dorgan, analyst at Panmure Gordon, said the early release of the results fuelled speculation about internal battles at the retailer.

In fact, former chairman Paul Myners openly criticised Bolland in 2012, hinting at a divided board at M&S. However, at the time, Bolland played down the prospect of a fresh bout of the internal strife that has plagued M&S in the past.

'Sell' - Investec

"We had been (slightly) warming to the stock, but the statement demonstrates the size of the challenge ahead to stem the declines at M&S," commented Hocking.

"There remains an awful lot to do to stop further profit deterioration," she added, reiterating her 'sell' recommendation.

"Attractive at 340p"

But for the punters, Philip Dorgan, analyst at Panmure Gordon, sees 340p as a buying level for the stock. While he continued to rate the share a 'hold', he commented that private equity interest could be piqued again.

The stock is trading on a 2013 price/earnings ratio of between 11 and 12 times.

They seem to have lost their clothes market without much chance of getting it back. Maybe Green could buy up the non food business and let M & S become another supermarket like Waitrose. Surely this has to continue its downtrend.

Just closed @367.2 +10.31.

Good one skinny :O)

Well done skinny. I did like their sale in our local marks at christmas. Looked at a shirt I liked, looked at the sizes XXL and small, lol. I find if they have the size you want there will only be one, never two or more. Very frustrating.

Cheers chaps - I bought a jumper in M&S bluewater on Sunday - I call it 'coral' others call it pink :-)

Wot's your boyfriend call it ?

:-)

Oi - it takes a real man to wear pink! :-)

Bolland spurned by M&S women
By Graham Ruddick | Telegraph – 1 hour 43 minutes ago.. .

The retailer’s CEO is under pressure after falling clothing sales and difficult Christmas trading

By Wednesday afternoon in Marks & Spencer ’s smart Paddington headquarters, Marc Bolland, chief executive, Alan Stewart, its chief financial officer, and a collection of media and investor relations advisors had put the finishing touches to the 129-year-old retailer’s Christmas trading update.

The sales figures were worse than expected much worse in clothing but Bolland was confident that the company’s message that it had avoided heavy sales promotions during the period would settle the nerves of the City.

However, then came one of those chaotic moments that can say as much about the business broadly as they do about the event itself.

At 6.30pm, M&S was informed by Sky News that it planned to run a story that the retailer’s Christmas performance had not been good. It had figures that were uncomfortably close to the truth. Bolland and his team knew they were facing a leak. After consulting lawyers and advisors, they decided to publish the update early.

At 7.51pm, M&S sent the full trading update out on email to the media, investors and analysts as well as publishing the figures on its website.

Thirty minutes later, Bolland and Stewart were hosting a conference call to talk through the results.

“First I want to apologise for the unusual timing of this call,” Bolland started. “I have in my script 'good morning’, but I will say 'good evening’.”

The source of the leak remains unknown. However, the impression that has been left from the events of Wednesday night is that all is not well at M&S. This sort of thing simply does not happen to a blue chip company, let alone M&S, the country’s biggest clothing retailer.

On top of the leak now being investigated by chairman Robert Swannell, were poor trading figures. The 0.3pc rise in like-for-like food sales was below expectations, but this can be accounted for by the fact M&S did not see inflation in food prices and did not include December 30 and 31 in its numbers, which attract strong New Year’s Eve sales.

However, the 3.8pc drop in clothing sales was worse than even the most pessimistic predictions from analysts.

Almost three years into the job, Bolland now looks under more pressure than ever.

When he took over, the former Wm Morrison’s chief executive launched a three-year plan to transform M&S into a modern, multi-national and multi-channel retailer.

He has taken M&S back into Paris, expanded in China, and is building a new website for the company.

However, as M&S enters the final stages of that plan, the company’s vital womenswear range has shown no sign of improvement.

Bolland has said that management changes he has made to the clothing division including the departure of Kate Bostock and the arrival of former Debenhams (Other OTC: DBHSY - news) boss Belinda Earl as style director will not have an impact on the company’s products until the autumn and winter ranges of 2013 and 2014.

The early signs from the City are that Bolland will be given next Christmas to prove himself, but there is no doubt that shareholders and staff are becoming concerned.

After the debacle of the leaked results, Christmas 2013 looks make or break for Bolland. “We recognise that M&S is under some pressure,” said one top ten shareholder. “We’re inclined to give Bolland some time, perhaps six to 12 months, to get it right.

“One of the key issues is womenswear. Clearly he has a relatively new team there, and we want to give him to time to bed-in changes. So we’re not pushing for any change, not yet in any case.”

The early signs as to whether Bolland and the new team can deliver that improvement in general merchandise are mixed.

He believes it would “dreaming in the daylight” to believe that Earl and John Dixon, moved from head of food to lead general merchandise, could already have turned around M&S’s womens clothing.

But he insists the company is on track to meet his goal of transforming it from a “traditional UK retailer” to an “international multi-channel retailer” and, crucially, that the management team is behind him.

“One thing that is good about the last three years is we have had a very aligned board and strongly aligned management team. You haven’t seen mud and dirt thrown around,” Bolland said, adding that there is “nothing wrong” with M&S.

The company’s share price would suggest that investors do believe Bolland’s plan will be successful. Despite the decline in Christmas sales described as “dreadful” by one analyst shares in M&S are up 1pc since the figures were released.

The City welcomed the fact that Bolland and Stewart had protected margins during the Christmas period as Bolland expected they would.

Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, has a “Buy” rating on M&S. “We thought long and hard about it and the glass is still half-full on M&S as an investment case. It is not time to empty the glass,” he said.

According to Black, once Bolland’s three-year investment plan is complete, capital expenditure should fall and “an already robust balance sheet can become stronger”. That could open the door to an increased dividend and share buybacks.

However, despite the prospect of improved returns, Black believes the future will still hinge on womenswear: “If I was Mark Bolland I would pray to the clothing gods that they get autumn/winter right.”

However, there are signals that any improvement in sales may not come easily.

On Thursday, in news that barely registered amid the chaos of the night before, Carole Boyes-Weston, head of design for the womenswear labels Per Una and Limited Collection, left the company after only nine months.

There are also murmurs about Bolland’s management style and whether he has been decisive enough on changing the general merchandise division. For example, analysts have suggested that he should focus on making M&S’s individual brands, like Autograph, more distinctive.

A rival retail leader said: “He comes across as unsure and needy. It looks like he is moving the deckchairs around on the Titantic. There has been no bold decisions.”

A second top ten shareholder said it is “watching closely” Bolland’s international growth plans because of fears that M&S is diverting much needed capital expenditure from the UK to abroad.

“Should the business be expanding internationally when they’ve got problems at home?” the shareholder said. “The key thing is to stabilise the UK business.

“If you think about M&S, it’s taking more cost out. But if you take too many staff out the stores end up impacting your own trading performance. That’s what happened at Tesco (Other OTC: TSCDY - news) .

“You’ve got to worry if they’re taking out UK costs and losing share, should they be interested in rolling out internationally?”

The shareholder said they had told Bolland about their concerns: “We’ve questioned the lack of UK capex [capital expenditure] uplift, and whether he’s damaging the UK franchise at the cost of international expansion.”

The comparison to Tesco is a concerning one for Bolland because last Christmas the supermarket group was forced to issue a profits warning, its first in decades. But it will also remind Bolland of how quickly fortunes can change in the retail industry.

Philip Clarke, the Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) chief executive, is now a favourite of the sector after delivering a 1.8pc uplift in like-for-like sales just a year on from the profits warning.

Like Clarke, Bolland recognises the main problem behind the company’s struggles. He will now be hoping that he can repeat the Tesco man’s recovery in sales too.