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Morrisons to report third quarter sales dip - analysts

Published: 03:10 05 Nov 2015 AEDT

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Analysts hope Morrisons's second-half profit will be higher than in the first half

Investors are expecting news on Morrisons' (LON:MRW) plans to turn around its business when the supermarket chain updates the market on Thursday.

Analysts say new chief executive David Potts may give more details of the progress of his six-point strategic priority plan in a trading statement.

The market is also hoping the company will reiterate guidance for underlying profit before tax to be higher in the second half of 2015/16 than in the first.

Morrisons, along with rivals Sainsbury's (LON:SBRY), Tesco (LON:TSCO) and Walmart-owned Asda, has been battling rising competition from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, as well as online suppliers such as Ocado (LON:OCDO).

Broker Hargreaves Lansdown said it expected Morrisons to report a 1.25% fall in like-for-like sales in the third quarter.

Analyst Keith Bowman said: "On balance and weighing pressured earnings against recently announced store sales and management initiatives, falling debt and the group’s comparatively solid balance sheet, analyst consensus opinion has recently thawed from a sell to a weak hold."

Shares in Morrisons were 6.8p or 4% up at 177.7p in late afternoon London trading.

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