Updates

Marks & Spencer

May 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.

Unexpectedly resilient update from Marks amidst the retail gloom, with Q4 showing a 4.2% rise in sales, adjusted for the fact that 2009/10 had an extra week. Like-for-like UK sales rose 2.2%, with general merchandise up 0.7% (against a tough comparative of +9.1% last time) and food rising 3.4%. Chief executive Marc Bolland noted an encouraging 6% increase in average selling prices for general merchandise (including 2.5% for VAT). For the current year operating costs are expected to rise 5% offset partially by a 0.25% increase in gross margins. Group capital expenditure will be around £900m, to fund 2% increase in new UK footage and c. 10% extra international space. Originally tipped at 215p in Dece ...

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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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