Updates

Marks & Spencer

March 2012

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.

With its focus on “upmarket” produce, Marks & Spencer has done well to avoid being squeezed by consumer austerity and has met expectations in the important Q3 period encompassing the 13 weeks to 31 December. This showed group sales up 2.4%, including like-for-like sales growth of 0.5% (general merchandise -1.8%, food +3%). As a result full year profit expectations remain unchanged. Clothing sales rose 1.1% after a strong quarter in kidswear, menswear and sleepwear, while home sales fell 13.3% primarily due to its exit from selling technology goods but the planned roll-out of new ranges and store layout later this year will see a step change. Broker Singer Capital Markets expects unchanged pretax profit of &p ...

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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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