Updates

Marks & Spencer - Strong rise in gross margin

December 2015

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.

The shares jumped after half-year results came in 5% ahead of consensus forecasts with underlying pretax profit increasing 6% to £284m on sales up 1.4% to £5bn. Eps rose 5% to 14.1p. Free cash flow pre shareholder returns increased from £67m to £256m while the interim dividend rose 6% to 6.8p.In the UK operating profit rose 14.6% to £306m with food sales rising 3.3% (like-for-like +0.2%) although gross margin was 0.25% lower, due to higher levels of waste, reflecting unseasonal summer conditions. However, full year margin guidance is for zero to +0.1%.In general merchandise (mainly clothing wear), gross margin rose a handsome 2.85% ahead of previous guidance of 1.5%-2% and reflected gains from so ...

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Marks & Spencer - To close 53 international stores (January 2017)

Marks & Spencer - CEO review leads to eps downgrades (August 2016)

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Marks & Spencer - Sharp rise in gross margin (February 2016)

Marks and Spencer - Shares hit new high of 577.5p (June 2015)

Marks & Spencer - Beats forecasts thanks to gross margin gains (December 2014)

Marks & Spencer (August 2014)

Marks & Spencer (March 2014)

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Marks & Spencer - High hopes for Autumn/Winter clothing range (August 2013)

Marks & Spencer - Food sales gain offset clothing decline (May 2013)

Marks & Spencer -Stronger Q2 heralds re-rating (December 2012)

Marks & Spencer - Pulls back sales growth targets (July 2012)

Marks & Spencer (March 2012)

Marks & Spencer - Net debt falles by Â£230m (December 2011)

Marks & Spencer (September 2011)

Marks & Spencer - Eps rises 16% (July 2011)

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Marks & Spencer - Sound strategy unveiled (December 2010)

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Marks & Spencer - Beats forecasts (November 2009)

Marks & Spencer - Improvement in underlying sales (August 2009)

Marks & Spencer (June 2009)

Marks & Spencer - Aggressive cost cutting (February 2009)

M&S - Interest rate cuts could galvanise shares from eight year lows (December 2008)

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