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

Final Results

Full year results:
• Group sales up 2.7%1 at £10.3bn
• Total UK sales +2.3%: Food +4.2%; General Merchandise 0.0%
• Like-for-like UK sales +0.2%: Food +1.7%; General Merchandise -1.4%
• International sales +6.2%1
• Multi-channel sales +22.8%

• Underlying profit before tax2 -3.9%3 to £623m
• Statutory profit before tax +6.1%3 to £580m
• Underlying basic earnings per share2 +0.9%3 to 32.2p
• Basic earnings per share +14.8%3 to 32.5p
• Full year dividend 17.0p per share level on the year
• Net debt down £150.7m to £2.46bn

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) - British retailer Marks & Spencer warned its new website would dent first-quarter sales figures, but held out the prospect of cash returns to investors as a more efficient supply chain boosts profitability after three years of decline. M&S MKS.L shares fell as much as 3.8 percent on Tuesday after it said the website would take up to six months to "settle in" after launching in February, hitting general merchandise sales in the three months to the end of June. Britain's biggest clothing retailer, which also sells homewares and upmarket food, said no one in the company would receive a bonus payment this year as performance targets had not been met. The last time M&S did not pay any bonus was 2008-09. "Nothing's gone wrong," Chief Financial Officer Alan Stewart told reporters when asked about the new website, a pillar of M&S's intended transformation into an international retailer reaching customers through stores, the web and mobile devices. "It will take four to six months to settle down... We've seen others in the market who've taken longer. But it's what we expected to see," said Stewart, pointing out that 2.5 million customers had registered on the new website, including 700,000 new customers. Some analysts were sceptical. "We understand that the declines here have been material and we are not sure that this is just a natural settling down process or something more," said Espirito Santo analyst Tony Shiret, who has a "neutral" rating on M&S shares. The company said better clothing sales evident in its fourth quarter had continued in its stores in its new financial year, while the food business continued to outperform the market. ID:nL6N0N215S M&S is trying to shake off a reputation for functional but dull clothes, with its new strategy focusing on higher quality and more fashionable styles that satisfy its core customers aged 45 and over while also appealing to younger shoppers. CEO Marc Bolland has spent 2.3 billion pounds ($3.9 billion) in the last three years pushing through the changes to address decades of under-investment, overseeing the redesign of products and stores and an overhaul of logistics to serve the new website. But a new clothing team he set up in 2012 has so far failed to deliver a durable pick-up in sales and, for the first time, M&S earned less in the year to the end of March than its faster growing rival Next NXT.L . ID:nL6N0MH1CS Full-year sales of 10.3 billion pounds - up 2.7 percent from a year earlier - were well below a revised target Bolland set in 2012 of 10.8-11.5 billion pounds. "They're telling the right story in terms of spending coming down and return of cash to shareholders, but the underlying trading is no great shakes," said one M&S shareholder. The general merchandise division has posted eleven consecutive quarters of underlying sales declines. Profits have been propped up by 18 straight quarters of growth at M&S food. EXCESS CASH M&S said its general merchandise gross margin would grow by about 100 basis points in 2014-15 due to a more efficient supply chain, while its food gross margin was expected to grow by 10-30 basis points as a result of further operational efficiencies. It forecast a "significant" improvement in the general merchandise gross margin in the following two years and a further "step up" beyond that as the benefit of heavy investment in logistics flows through. That investment will not, however, include a new distribution centre at the Thames Gateway, east of London, which is no longer going ahead, saving M&S 130 million pounds. Capital spending would fall from 710 million pounds in 2013-14 to 500-550 million pounds in each of the next three years. "This gives potential for any excess cash to be returned to shareholders on a regular basis," said Bolland. M&S held its dividend at 17 pence and said it was committed to maintaining a progressive dividend policy with dividends broadly twice covered by earnings. "We expected firmer indications on capital repatriation, (and) a better general merchandise gross margin recovery than now indicated," said Shiret, maintaining a "neutral" rating on the stock. M&S made an underlying pretax profit of 623 million pounds in the year to March 29, down 3.9 percent from 2012-13 but ahead of an analyst consensus forecast of 615 million pounds. M&S shares were down 4.5 pence at 445.5 pence at 1427 GMT. May marks a decade since retail tycoon Philip Green proposed to pay 400 pence a share, or 9.1 billion pounds, for the retailer, which made a profit of 763 million pounds in 2003-4. M&S says comparing Green's proposal with the current share price is unfair given 10 years of dividend payments, a 2004 tender offer and a 2007-08 share buyback. However, Green's camp argues that, in real terms, M&S's share price is below where it was in 2004.

Interim Management Statement

· Group sales1 +2.3%
· UK: total sales +2.0%, like-for-like +0.3%
· GM: total sales -0.8%, like-for-like -1.5%
· Clothing: total sales +0.1%, like-for-like -0.6%
· Food2: total sales +4.2%, like-for-like +1.7%
· M&S.com -8.1%
· International sales1 +4.7%

M&S patches up 'consumer love affair' for merrier Christmas
BY JAMES DAVEY
LONDON Thu Aug 14, 2014 6:03am BST

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/08/14/uk-m-s-food-idUKKBN0GE09X20140814?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

Half Yearly Report

Improved half year results
· Group sales1 +1.0% to £4.9bn
· Underlying PBT2 +2.3% to £268m
· Statutory PBT at £279m

GM sales performance impacted by September
· GM first half sales -2.3%, LFL -2.9%; Clothing -1.6%, LFL -2.2%
· Unseasonal conditions in September adversely impacted the first half by c.1.3%
· M&S.com first half sales -6.3%, improving trend and on track for growth ahead of peak trading period

Womenswear performance improved
· Sales +1.3% in the first five months of the year with improving trend
· Improvement in full price sales with increasingly positive customer feedback

General Merchandise gross margin up strongly
· Gross margin +150bps, ahead of full year guidance of +100bps
· Significant sourcing gains and lower promotional activity

Food business continues to outperform the market
· Food first half sales +3.6%; LFL +1.0%
· Specialist positioning continues to set us apart from the competition
· Gross margin +25bps

International sales1 +1.2%, operating profit level
· Owned business performed well; franchise impacted by local currency and political issues

Tight control of costs and capex
· Operating costs +2.7%, lower than full year guidance of +4%
· Capex £176.8m, in line with c.£500-550m full year guidance

Strong cash generation
· EBITDA £578.8m, up £37.7m
· Free cash flow before dividend and share transactions up £73m
· Dividend up 0.2p to 6.4p

Unlucky gf on steroids this am. Overbought now so can it continue? Crazy.

i've said the same about dow, but it continues to defy gravity - at least for now

3rd Quarter Results

Marks and Spencer made good progress in three of its four key priorities for the year:

1) Food growth
· Great quarter with strong outperformance of the market: sales +2.8%; +0.1% LFL
· Record sales, +17% in the key Christmas week
· New stores performing well and store opening programme on track

2) Womenswear performance
· Difficult quarter for General Merchandise: sales -5.4%, LFL -5.8%
· Clothing sector performance impacted by unseasonal conditions in October and November
· Disruption at our Castle Donington distribution centre affected performance in December

3) General Merchandise gross margin improvement
· Good progress on gross margin: guidance unchanged at +150 to +200bps
· Slightly lower discounting driven by December

4) Cash generation
· Improved operating costs performance: guidance improved from c.+3.5% to c.+2.0%
· Continued tight control of costs and capital expenditure

QUARTER 4 2014/15 TRADING STATEMENT
13 WEEKS TO 28 MARCH 2015

'Food outperformed the market; General Merchandise performance improved'


Marks & Spencer continued to make strong progress against its four priorities for the year:

1) Food business outperformed the market
· Another strong performance in a difficult market: sales +3.7%; LFL +0.7%
· Specialist positioning continues to set us apart; record Valentine's sales
· New Simply Food stores performing well

2) GM and Womenswear sales performance improved
· General Merchandise: sales +1.3%, LFL +0.7%
· Customers recognising continued improvement in product quality and styling
· M&S.com sales back in growth as planned: sales +13.8%

3) General Merchandise gross margin improvement on track
· Good progress on gross margin: guidance unchanged at +150 to +200bps
· Full price sales up, discount participation slightly lower

4) Strong cash generation
· Improved operating costs performance: guidance improved from c. +2.0% to c. +1.5%
· Continued tight control of costs and capital expenditure

Marks & Spencer posts best non-food sales outcome in four years

Final Results

"M&S Grows Full Year Margin and Profit"

Improved full year results
· Group sales up 0.4%1 to £10.3bn
· Underlying profit before tax2 up 6.1% to £661.2m
· Statutory profit before tax up 3.4% to £600.0m

Food business outperforms in a very competitive market
· Specialist positioning differentiates us from the competition
· 62 new Simply Food stores opened, with performance ahead of expectations
· Gross margin up 30bps

General Merchandise gross margin up strongly
· Gross margin up 190bps
· Significant sourcing gains and slightly lower discounting

General Merchandise sales performance challenging
· Full year performance did not meet expectations, positive LFL growth in the final quarter
· Continued improvement in product quality and style
· M&S.com sales back in growth in the final quarter, following disruption earlier in the year

International business impacted by macro-economic issues
· Operating profit down 24.8% to £92m

Tight control of costs and capex
· Operating costs up 1.5%
· Capex down £183m to £526.6m

Strong cash generation
· EBITDA £1,312.6m, up £92.9m
· Free cash flow before dividend £524.2m, up £96.3m
· Final dividend up 7.4% to 11.6p; full year dividend up 5.9% to 18p
· Share buyback programme of £150m announced for 2015/16

Wee punt on the sreads long @ 456p

Update 07/01st.

the food side is probably performing quite well, but their clothing is a consistent disaster, not helped by unseasonally warm weather

Brave or stupid cynic? He who dares :0)

cynic - you may be right in thought - but M&S was the Big seller of ladies skirts at £200 a pop. They got that fashion just right according to Mary Portas (DYOR).
Winter clothing is a boost for retailers in general, but that shouldn't means "everyone"
+ did you see who's doing well in footwear that they have a raffle to allow punters into the queue!! How mad are folks, wanting to part with £00's for "rubbishy" (IMHO) shoes? M&S certainly got that skirt-fashion right, but maybe other areas are less-so . . . . we have to wait for the Annual Report . . . but it's far too broad to group "Retailers" together...IMHO.
HNY

Just read yesterday they have been stuck with a lot of heavy winter coats and thick jumpers, due to the mild winter. John Lewis has had a very good Christmas via the net.

/john-lewis-lifts-the-lid-on-xmas-sales

City expects third-quarter like-for-like sales at Marks & Spencer's general merchandise arm to fall by around 2 per cent, following a 1.9 per cent drop in the previous three months.



Online-retaiers-enjoy-record-festive-figures-experts-warn-high-street-operators-without-decent-websites-cosh.

IMHO, M&S 'take out curries' are now very poor and completely lacking in taste, when compared to what was offered about 12 months ago.

The secret? Well, there is one and it's this: Just don't eat it after just the first cooking. Then let it cool down, then stick it in the fridge for, say '23 hours' and then re-heat and re-serve.

NB. RICE EXCLUDED, of course. Heating up and re-using rice is never a good food policy and can give you food poisoning.

Simples! But it doesn't tell you this on the box.

that can be a dangerous thing to do for all sorts of reasons ..... most certainly do not do that with rice or you could end up with quite serious poisoning

Nothing new here folks, MKS get's written off every year. Go back ten years, same story SP bombs at Xmas. Performance during the course of the year is what counts. Uptrend is still intact from the low 200p in 2009, if it drops below 400p I would be worried.

Some support @ 440p from where it has recently bounced. The Q4 trading update on 07/04/16 is what counts IMHO.

Latest broker views


Date

Broker

New target

Recomm.


22 Dec Nomura 565.00 Buy
21 Dec RBC Capital... 600.00 Outperform
18 Dec Haitong... 550.00 Buy
18 Dec Exane BNP... 580.00 Outperform
17 Dec Peel Hunt 400.00 Sell
15 Dec Investec 590.00 Buy
15 Dec Barclays... 500.00 Equal weight
14 Dec Deutsche Bank 580.00 Buy
14 Dec Nomura N/A Buy
14 Dec JP Morgan... 550.00 Neutral

Broker Recommendations for Marks & Spencer Group


Does anybody really give any credence to Broker Rec's? Seems to me to be the 'Fickle Finger Of Fate' or the talents of 'Mystic Meg' would be more reliable. Above, only Peel Hunt forecast sell with target 400p.

It's a punt chaps DYOR. Tally Ho! DC :0)