Company
LON:MKS
Marks and Spencer Group is a retailer of clothing, food and home products in the United Kingdom. The Company has 622 stores, including Simply Food franchise stores, as well as an international business.
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Markets are moving off latest polling data, which suggests that Boris Johnson's party has over a 60% chance of winning a majority in December's snap election, after which the pro-business measures would be introduced
“For the first time we are beginning to see the potential from the far-reaching changes we are making,” said chief executive Steve Rowe
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The UK's premier share index finished up 8.57 points at 7,396.65 on the day
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Home builder Redrow and cybersecurity firm Sophos will also be delivering numbers
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Analysts at HSBC lowered their share price target from 239p to 150p and downgraded their recommendation to “reduce”
Today it was confirmed that Marks & Spencer will also lose its spot in the FTSE100 having been one of the original members when the index was set up in 1984.
Adjusted pre-tax profits fell by 10% in the year ended 30 March, and heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs is expecting a similar drop this time around
What happened to the original cohort of FTSE 100 companies?
Asos was downgraded to ‘hold’ from ‘buy’ but the analysts said the e-retailer's problems are “far from insurmountable”
Most income investors fill their boots with FTSE 100 giants such as BT and Vodafone, but with several high-profile dividend cuts of late, Octopus fund manager Chris McVey reckons a ‘multi-cap’ approach is needed
In a brief statement, M&S announced that Jill McDonald is leaving the business nearly two years after taking over as Managing Director of Clothing and Home
Ocado has signed multiple overseas partners in recent years but the market wants to know how much money it can make from these deals, according to AJ Bell's Russ Mould.
Ocado’s shares have risen strongly this year after clinching deals with M&S and Coles.
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The Footsie closed the afternoon session down nearly 13 points at 7,536.
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After a relatively quiet start to the week, the news flow is set to ratchet up on Tuesday as a host of big names publish updates of one kind or another
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The UK's premier share index finished nearly four points lower at 7,549
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Aside from the two housebuilders, corporate updates in the coming week will also be delivered by retailers Ocado, Superdry and Dunelm
AJ Bell’s Dividend Dashboard shows that payments from London’s 100 biggest companies is expected to total £91.2bn this year
Barclays maintained an ‘overweight’ rating on M&S but lowered its target price to 290p from 320p
Citi’s rating of ‘buy’ was reiterated with the share price target hiked to 1,450p from 1300p
With German discounters Aldi and Lidl chipping away at its market share and Amazon marching onto the grocery scene, Tesco’s work is far from done.
Never mind eight out of 10 cats ... barely eight out of 10 M&S shareholders wanted new shares, even at a discount
Oil major guides to total dividends and share buy-backs of US$125bn “or more” between 2021 and 2025
The budget airline is accompanied by generic drug maker Hikma on the list of firms facing the blue-chip trap door
Builders and building materials
About 4.75% of Kier’s shares are on loan to short sellers, according to website www.shorttracker.co.uk
The US broker's analysts pointed out that Ocado’s valuation “now assumes an unequivocal commercial success of the OSP for its existing customers (and their 38 contracted sheds)”
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The FTSE 100 closed 32.86 points higher at 7,218.16 on Thursday, just easing off its late afternoon high of 7,235
On Wednesday, M&S shares fell 5.9% to 235.80p as trading in the rights to the upcoming share issue hit the secondary market
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The Day Ahead will also bring updates from two FTSE 250-listed firms, transport operator FirstGroup and water utility Pennon, plus numbers from newspapers group Daily Mail
Further trials for the system are scheduled for later this year, with a commercial system expected to be manufactured in 2020
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The UK blue-chip index ended 7.78 points lower at 7,265.98, just off the day's worst level of 7,263.80 after a topsy-turvey session which saw it hit a session high of 7,314.85 early on
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The shortened trading Week Ahead will only bring updates from the likes of second-liners FirstGroup, Pennon, Wizz Air, and Daily Mail & General Trust
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Stock market sage Bernard Lasker once said: “I can feel it coming...A whole new round of disastrous speculation, with all the familiar stages in order: blue-chip boom, then a fad for secondary issues, then an over-the-counter play, then a g
“The fact that sales are still expected to drop this year suggests the turnaround is still some way off,” said Ian Forrest, investment research analyst at The Share Centre.
M&S reported a 9.9% drop in pre-tax profit before adjustments
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The Footsie closed out at 7,334 - up around five points, while mid-cap index was firmly lower- down 129 points at 19,307
High street retailer has sunk to the relegation places in the FTSE 100 index
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Economists are expecting the consumer price index to be well below the recent growth in average earnings at around 1.8% year-on-year in April
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The UK index of leading shares closed down nearly 38 points at 7,310
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The Week Ahead will also bring news from power firm SSE and water groups Severn Trent and United Utilities, plus the latest UK inflation and retail sales numbers
M&S will have to deal with fierce competition: Waitrose recently unveiled ambitious plans to treble the size of its online business, while Tesco, Sainsbury and Amazon.com have been investing into their delivery propositions for a while
Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm might well have been about the pressure of a progressive dividend policy: 'Build on up, don't break the chain; Sparks will fly when the whistle blows'
“The Ocado JV deal is an elegant solution to a structural gap in the M&S business model and reflects a bold decision to buy into a market leading online proposition”
Nick Jones, who also served as a director at Marks & Spencer, would take up the top job before the end of the year, replacing long-time CEO Colin Porter
Overseas markets, particularly the US, have proved tough for UK companies to crack, just ask Tesco, Next, Sainsbury’s and many others…
Basic measures like dividend cover suggest a number of blue chips might be struggling to maintain their payouts at current levels
RBC’s preferred stocks are Next and Primark owner Associated British Foods
While Ocado has lowered its direct exposure to the Grocery Home Delivery model through its recently announced joint venture with M&S, it has not changed the fundamental economics which HSBC believes are challenged
The Swiss bank lowered its earnings per share forecasts for the FTSE 100-listed firm by 16% and 27% for 2019 and 2020, respectively, with risks to the downside
Holiday cheer as airline stocks gain on hopes holidaymakers will put Brexit concerns aside for summer
Sainsbury’s, which is in the process of trying to merge with Asda, lost market share as sales declined over the period
Frontier, which holds a 27.5% stake in Fieldwork, said the funding would put towards a project to create a multi-armed robot prototype
Ocado said it expects the deal with Coles to create “significant long term value” to the business
Barclays said it is concerned about the “increasingly competitive” UK ready-meals market, in a note on the European food ingredients sector
“The fire has been a setback, but it will be only a temporary one,” said chef executive Tim Steiner
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The Footsie added 0.34% to close at 7,324, while US shares are also higher at the time of writing
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Aside from the Brexit shenanigans, the Day Ahead will also bring the release of the latest UK jobs data, plus trading updates from online retailers Ocado PLC and ASOS PLC
M&S will open new superstores that offer its full range of food to bring in families for their big weekly grocery shop
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DIY stores owner Kingfisher, clothing retailer Next, plus troubled fashion firm Ted Baker will report full-year results, with trading updates due from internet grocer Ocado and online fashion group ASOS
RBC revised its target prices on Marks & Spencer and Ocado shares but maintained a 'sector perform' on the stocks
Analysts at Peel Hunt repeated a ‘buy’ rating on the stock but cut its target price to 190p from 200p
The US broker's analysts said: “We are of the view that the £70mln of EBITDA synergy ambitions underpinning the deal rationale may prove rather difficult to deliver in full”
With M&S choosing to anchor itself to online grocer Ocado and ITV and the BBC pooling their efforts in online streaming, have tie-ins and consolidation become the best strategy to ward off the surge in digital competition?
M&S intends to conduct a rights issue to raise up to £600mln, which will be launched in due course, and which is fully underwritten on a standby basis by Morgan Stanley
The UK's blue chip index closed down nearly 44 points at 7,107. Meanwhile, mid-cap cousin FTSE 250 fell more than 116 at 19,513
The two firms confirmed the talks in separate announcements, just weeks after Ocado boss Tim Steiner had stayed tight-lipped on speculation of a possible tie-up following newspaper reports in January
“It is our business to talk to retailers and we never comment on who we’re talking to," Ocado boss Tim Steiner told reporters after the company's full year results
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The UK's premier share index closed up over 143 points higher at 7,177
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Aside from BP's full-year results, the Day Ahead will also include an update from FTSE 100-listed online grocer Ocado PLC and from mid-cap real estate firm St Modwen Properties
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The week ahead includes updates from Thomas Cook, Superdry, Ryanair and Tate & Lyle, among others.
Ocado and M&S have held “secret talks” over the past few weeks about launching a food delivery service, the Mail of Sunday reported
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A deceptively dull start by the Footsie gradually turned into something a bit more dramatic
Capital & Regional said weaker sentiment in retail assets led to a 4.5% decrease in the value of its portfolio in the second half.
In a full year trading update, the group said like-for-like revenues had risen 3.2% compared to 2017
The retailer wants to take a third of its business online, so it is planning to close more than 100 stores over the next few years which should leave it with a smaller, better-located estate
Analysts reckon it’s a combination of factors, although most of thing come back to the same thing: JD sells things that today’s youth want to buy
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Footsie closed down over 63 points at 6,855 on the day
Below we provide a cut-out-and-keep guide to the major quoted retailers and how the quoted retailers performed
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The day includes trading updates from retailers Moss Bros and AO World, plus UK gross domestic product data and US inflation figures
“The combination of reducing consumer confidence, mild weather, Black Friday, and widespread discounting by our competitors made November a very challenging trading period,” said chief executive Steve Rowe
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The Footsie has been dipping below and above the 6,800 mark throughout the day
Clothes sales have long been poor but a recent slowdown in the previously resilient food division has spooked investors
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“Debenhams hasn’t updated on trading since 25 October and we know from many of its competitors that November was a terrible month for retailers and December is also likely to have been a struggle”
Aldi sold almost £1bn worth of food and drink in the run-up to the holiday season, and Morrisons has responded by slashing the prices of more than 900 products
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The FTSE 250 on the other hand, a better gauge of UK companies, added over 180 points at 17,976
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The Week Ahead will bring trading updates from the likes of M&S and Debenhams on the general retail front and all three of the listed UK supermarket groups – Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco
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The UK blue-chip benchmark finished around 41 points lower at 6,692
On January 10, we’ll find out just how kind or terribly unforgiving the market has been to Marks & Spencer - it will also represent a key make-or-break milestone for its chief executive Steve Rowe
With consumer confidence at its lowest ebb for almost a year, just what is in store for M&S
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At the close, the FTSE 100 was down 71.93 points, or 1.1% at 6,773.24, just above the session low of 6,761.37 and well below the early high of 6,845.17.
Justin King led the development of the M&S Simply Food convenience format during his time as director of food at the retailer
The bank said they did not expect food sales to regain momentum until “well into next year” given “price deflation in an inflationary sector” and the retailer choosing to promote less at a time when the sector is becoming “more promotional”
The UK's premier blue-chip index closed down around 12 points at 7,004
The furniture maker is said to have filed a notice of intention to appoint accountancy firm, Grant Thornton, as administrator
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Retailers are hoping customers spend enough over Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas to boost sales after a difficult year
Builders and building materials
According to data published by Castellain Capital, the ‘shorters’ started building their positions in January, which, coincidentally, was the month debt-laden construction group Carillion was liquidated
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The UK's premier share index closed up around four points at 7,038, while the FTSE 250 shed almost 248 points at 18,662.
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The day ahead includes first half results from Royal Mail and a third quarter trading update from Bovis Homes
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The focus is now on the Federal Reserve meeting later. The interest rate announcement is set for 7.00pm, UK time
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said: “Marks & Spencer needs to live up to its reputation of quality products while also being more competitive on pricing"
