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

StockMarketWire.com

Marks & Spencer's H1 statutory pretax profit has slumped 88.4% to £25.1m, from a year-earlier's £216.0m. Interim dividend was 6.8p a share, unchanged on the year.

It proposed about 60% fewer Clothing & Home stores in its UK estate, and internationally planning to cease trading in 10 loss-making owned markets.

The company claimed good progress against strategic priorities set out in May.

Underlying pretax profit was £231.2m, down 18.6% from £284.0m, while group revenue was £4.99bn, from £4.95bn.

"In May, we laid out a number of questions which we would answer as part of our strategic review," said CEO Steve Rowe.

"We committed to creating a simpler business with customers at its heart, and taking action to start to recover our Clothing & Home business and continue to grow in Food.

"Our aim is to build a sustainable business which will delight our customers, provide a robust foundation for future growth and deliver value for our shareholders in the long term.

"We have made good progress on our plans and customers are already noticing a difference, particularly in Clothing & Home.

"In addition, we have made major steps towards fairer pay and pension arrangements, streamlined our senior management team and our plans to implement a simpler Head Office structure are well underway.

"We have now completed a forensic review of our estate both in the UK and in our International markets.

"Over the next five years we will transform our UK estate with c.60 fewer Clothing & Home stores, whilst continuing to increase the number of our Simply Food stores. In the future, we will have more inspiring stores in places where customers want to shop that complement our growing digital offer.

"Internationally, we propose to cease trading in ten loss making owned markets, but intend to continue to develop our presence through our strong franchise partners.

"These are tough decisions, but vital to building a future M&S that is simpler, more relevant, multi-channel and focused on delivering sustainable returns."

Blue-chip turnaround with 6% yield

Trading Statement

On Wednesday MKS report final results. SP has risen and is well of the lows of 2016 and is now at 2014 level. Can history repeat itself? Or just yet another turn around theory banjaxed. See how it opens on Monday but ideally for me 400p to be breached with a Limit Buy (on the spreads) @ 402p to catch a ride to 420p initial target with a tight stop.

01/06 EX-Divi Date Final Dividend

02/06 Record Date for Final Dividend

11/07 Q1 Trading Update

14/07 Final Divi Payment Date


LATEST BROKER VIEWS

Date Broker New target Recomm.
19 May Macquarie 290.00 Underperform
19 May HSBC 435.00 Buy
17 May HSBC 435.00 Buy
12 May Peel Hunt 500.00 Buy
10 May Citigroup 420.00 Buy
10 May Deutsche Bank 360.00 Hold
9 May Deutsche Bank N/A Hold
5 May Shore Capital N/A Hold
4 May Shore Capital N/A Hold
4 May Deutsche Bank N/A Hold

The danger of course is that turn around theory not believed and profit taking kicks in prior to Wednesday or on the day. The plus side for investors I'm guessing is the Dividend. Place your bets :o)

Be careful here, the sales of womens clothing has dropped and they are reportedly going to announce reduced profits.

How do you know that D/C..are you a cross dresser?

Weekend press Stan.

Only on Sunday afternoons Stan. :-))

Joking aside D/C I note that M&S have been on the rise of late.

Yes Stan. Could well be having to discount clothing to shift it.

True and personally retailers have not been my sector of choice for quite a wile now but still interesting to visit nevertheless.

LATEST BROKER VIEWS

Date Broker New target Recomm.
22 May Jefferies... 420.00 Buy

When is it going to reach £20 per share?

Could well be some consolidation in the retail sector over the next few years. Too many retailers with too much space (and hence high fixed costs).

There may be some logic in M&S merging with NEXT, having first floated off the food side as a separate company. Plenty of overlap between them and hence opportunities to rationalise and reduce costs.

Q - why on earth would NXT want to go anywhere near MKS?

Because they (NEXT) could run both businesses (brands) together, rationalise and improve overall profitability.

it might suit MKS, but as i said, i cannot see any appeal from NXT's perspective

Buy British, consumer spending will hold up, Barclays says
Mon, 22 May 2017
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Buy British, consumer spending will hold up, Barclays says
Lloyds Banking Group Quote more

Price: 72.25
Chg: 0.47
Chg %: 0.65%
Date: 11:25
FTSE 100 Quote
Price: 7,495.92 Chg: 25.21 Chg %: 0.34% Date: 11:25
(ShareCast News) - Domestically-focused UK stocks are unloved and underpriced, but unjustifiably so, analysts at Barclays Research believe, as they predict that recent outperformance by the group will run further.
In their opinion, valuations were factoring in a drop in UK consumer spend typical of a recession environment.

Indeed, they key to the economic outlook was still in the hands of the British consumer, they said.

However, inflation was set to peak in the third quarter of 2016 and survey data was pointing to wage acceleration, so consumer confidence should be well-supported from hereon, they said.

"Household savings rates, once adjusted for non-cash items, do not look alarming. Both consumer lending and household leverage statistics remain below the levels seen during the previous cycle," they explained.

So despite "significant" (and surprising) upgrades to estimates for companies' earnings per share after Brexit, the second tier FTSE 250 was "cheaply priced" relative to the Footsie.

UK General retail was discounting a 20-point drop in consumer confidence and UK banks, homebuilders and travel&leisure names also appeared to be cheaply priced, they said.

The same was true of real estate stocks, which "appear to be pricing in a 20% decline in book value, at a time when the IPD capital values index has started to tick higher."

Following on from the 'Buy British' theme of the research report, Barclays added WH Smith, M&S and Lloyds to its European recommended portfolio, while removing Almirall, PPB and SocGen.

Fair enough re the MKS appeal factor. However, traditional retailers are increasingly going to have their work cut out to compete with the virtual brigade.