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Authoritative Independent Monthly Share Selections Using Technical & Fundamental Analysis

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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.

  • Epic Code:
  • MKS
  • Price:
  • 515p
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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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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