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Marks & Spencer

August 2017

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

  • Epic Code:
  • MKS
  • Price:
  • 340p
Having hit a high of 395p after the excitement of Archie Norman becoming chairman the bubble was punctured, possibly unfairly, by an in line set of results. Adjusted pretax profit fell 10.3% to £614m while eps was down 12.6% to 30.4p. Strong cash generation reduced net debt by £204m to £1.9bn, while the dividend was held at 18.7p.Clothing & Home sales declined by 3.4% like-for-like, reflecting a planned reduction in promotions and clearance sales. The reward was a rise in gross margin of 1.05%. Management reduced the number of sub brands and number of lines by 10%, while there was a reduction in price in 2,400 lines since January 2016 to improve perceptions of value.In food like-for-like sales declined 0 ...

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Marks & Spencer - To close 53 international stores (January 2017)
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With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

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