Secondary Recommendation

Marks & Spencer - Shrugs off snow disruption

February 2011

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.

At odds with the soggy statement from Tesco, Marks & Spencer produced a resilient performance for the 13 weeks to 1 January with group sales up 4%. UK like-for-like sales rose 4% with general merchandise rising 4.4% (clothing +4.7%, Home +2.7%) and food increasing 3.5%. Clearly its catchy TV advertising impressed, with its clothing market share rising 0.7% to 11.8%. No information on margins has been given but there has been no evidence of widespread discounting. Existing guidance remains unchanged but we believe the focus on improving UK store sales densities by new boss Mark Bolland is an effective, low risk approach. Therefore, although the gain on our original tip at 215p in December ...

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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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