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Authoritative Independent Monthly Share Selections Using Technical & Fundamental Analysis

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Marks & Spencer - Sharp rise in gross margin

February 2016

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:
  • 423p
Marks & Spencer released a mixed update for the Q3 ending December. On the food side sales rose a strong 3.7% (0.4% like-for-like), outperforming a competitive market with 17% growth in the Christmas week.However, this was offset by yet another soggy performance in general merchandise (clothing, homewares) where like-for-like sales fell 5.8%, in part due to the warm December, which caused massive promotional activity by rivals although M&S refused to drop its prices and protected margins. There were two bright spots, however: at M&S.com sales rose 20.9% thanks to strong online traffic while gross margin guidance was upgraded to the top end of the +2%-2.5% range.Operating costs guidance was improved from c +4% to ...

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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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