Marks &
Spencer: For
many years the company has felt like Granny trying to keep up with the
youngsters like Next and Primark, but suddenly, with these interims, it has
thrown a few decent shapes to confuse us. Following the mild autumn, first half
general merchandise Like For Like sales were down 2.9% and clothing down 2.2%,
with 1.3 percentage points being pinned on the weather. However, better
sourcing helped push general merchandise gross margins up by a better than
expected 150bps, with the guidance being that there is more to come. There
should be an extra tailwind as the debacle of the web-site re-launch fades. Food
LFLs were +1.0% and gross margin up 25bps, as M&S’s premium offering spared
it the worst of the bloodbath in the squeezed middle aisle of Tesco et al. The
Simply Food expansion has been upped from 150 to 200 stores over the next three
years. Across the group there was good cost and capex discipline helping pre-tax
profits to edge up 2.3% to £268m.
Cash generation also picked up and the board wheeled out a
surprise 3.2% increase in the interim dividend to 6.4p. A repeat at the final
would mean a 17.5p total dividend for a decent yield of 3.7% at the newly
elevated 470p share price. (All the board has said is that they will ‘provide
an update on shareholder returns....in May 2015’). Earnings upgrades have been
sparse though after some downgrades in the run-up, so on consensus eps of
around 33.0p to March 2015 the PE is 14.2x. I still find these metrics
underwhelming for such a retail supertanker. The new found dividend growth is
low, but the stock will be one to watch in case these results are the first
evidence that it really has beaten corporate arthritis and got its mojo back. (Neil Cumming, 6thNovember
2014)
These comments are not a personal recommendation to deal. Any
investments can fall as well as rise in value, so you could get back less than
you invest. I may have a financial interest in some of the stocks written
about.
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