Shoe Zone Share Discussion Threads

[clocktower] 23/11/2016 17:02

Always a good time for shoes - wet weather - floods - leaking shoes = New Shoes

Big Sheds, Big Brands = Big Bucks

[masurenguy] 23/11/2016 16:28

Yeah - someone is bullish with that £450K buy !

[clocktower] 23/11/2016 15:39

That is a big trade ; 259k shares at £1.75 on the up.

[masurenguy] 17/11/2016 13:56

Retail sales rocket on thrills and chills in October, ONS finds

(ShareCast News) - UK retail sales in October rose by the most in 14 years, official figures released on Thursday showed, as cooler weather helped drive winter clothing sales and grocers enjoyed a thrilling Halloween. The volume of retail sales in October rose 7.4% over the same period last year, the Office for National Statistics said, up from the revised 4.2% gain the month before and beating of the 5.3% consensus forecast. Month-on-month, sales in October increased 1.9% on September's, well ahead of the 0.4% expected and up from the 0.1% a month ago.

Gains were made by all store types, except department stores, with the largest contribution to growth coming from textiles, clothing and footwear stores. Excluding car sales, retail sales were up 7.6% on last year and 2.0% on the previous month. ONS senior statistician Kate Davies said the strong figures were boosted by several factors. "Cooler temperatures in October boosted clothing sales as shoppers took their cue to purchase winter clothing, while the supermarkets benefitted from Halloween. This has also coincided with the strongest growth in internet sales seen for five years," she said.

While the retail sales figures provided further evidence that shoppers remain undeterred by the Brexit vote, economist Paul Hollingsworth at Capital Economics said he doubted that high-street spending will maintain this pace. "After all, this week's labour market figures highlighted that wage growth remains weak. Moreover, despite the slight dip in inflation in October, it still looks set to breach the MPC's 2% inflation target in spring next year, and will end the year closer to 3%. Accordingly, the squeeze in real income growth is yet to come. That said, with interest rates remaining low, and the chancellor set to ease the planned fiscal squeeze considerably at next week's Autumn Statement, we don't think that spending growth is on the cusp of a dramatic slowdown."

Howard Archer at IHS Markit said the level of consumer spending will be the key issue in the 4th quarter, with clouds on the horizon but current support from decent fundamentals in the shape of purchasing power and high employment. "Retailers will clearly be hoping that consumers' willingness to spend remains high over the vital Christmas shopping period. The latest Gfk consumer confidence survey indicates that consumer confidence fell back modestly in October after rebounding strongly in September and August from July's sharp losses that occurred in the aftermath of June's vote for Brexit."

[topvest] 25/10/2016 20:57

Before any special dividends?

[masurenguy] 25/10/2016 10:51

The existing yield at todays Offer Price of 169p is 7.4% !

[masurenguy] 25/10/2016 08:49

The shareprice decline was not based upon any news or correlating market information whatsoever and the RNS just confirms that results are expected to be inline with the expectations contained in their interim results in June. Hopefully this will now head back above 200p.

[tanneg] 25/10/2016 07:59

No profit warning as I was fearing, hope to see a rise on the back of this RNS :-

The Board expects pre-tax profit for the period to be broadly in line with expectations and marginally ahead of the prior year. The business continues to have strong cash conversion and closed the year with an approximate net cash balance of £15.0m (2015: £14.2m).

Nick Davis, Chief Executive of Shoe Zone, commented:

"I am pleased with the Group's performance in the second half of the year, during which we have seen little impact from the EU Referendum while having traded well through the key Back to School period. We have now opened three Big Box stores as part of our trial and the early signs are very encouraging. These stores offer customers a different store experience with a wide range of third party brands and the feedback so far has been good. We look forward to updating shareholders on progress at the Final Results in January."

[briangeeee] 07/10/2016 19:25

Increases in input costs tend to hurt in the short term, but medium to longer term the margin percentages normalise. The increased revenue and normalised margins means higher profits. The converse, with reducing input costs is why stocks (including retail) do poorly when deflation concerns abound.

[topvest] 07/10/2016 19:15

They will nudge prices up as with everyone else in this sector. Odd movement!

[gleach23] 07/10/2016 15:53

yes i dare say it can only be negative but let's hope it's largely mitigated.

anyway, good to see the offer strengthen in the last 30 mins and a bit more demand evident from dummy online trades.

[oregano] 07/10/2016 15:45

thanks gleach. i guess those only last for so long, they have to rebuy this year for next year etc. they don't appear to split out the direct CoGs from what i can see. prob cheap either way, but i would guess the £ move is negative for them.

[gleach23] 07/10/2016 15:41

I did wonder about that oregano but this from the Final Results allayed particular concerns on that front to a degree -

"During 2015 the Board adopted a cash flow hedging policy relating to committed stock purchases from overseas with the overall objective of protecting the product gross margin. The Group uses derivative financial instruments (usually forward exchange purchase contracts) to hedge the risk of future foreign currency fluctuations relating to the stock import schedules."

[she-ra] 07/10/2016 15:20

I imagine everything they sell is imported. If I'm not wrong they weak pound could cause this shoe specialist trouble. Supermarkets can spread the increased costs across their massive product range. Shoe Zone cant.

[oregano] 07/10/2016 15:20

£ declines increasing their cost of goods sold perhaps?

[gleach23] 07/10/2016 15:07

A spreadbet is brave with such a wide spread danpollard.

Such a fall just after the FY end is a bit of a concern. Anyone any clue what has prompted this fall or is it just a victim of general retail malaise?

Either way I've been tempted in for a few today.

[rjd123] 07/10/2016 14:38

It can then get worse, HSBC believe £ to $ will be at 1.10 by end of the year!

[she-ra] 07/10/2016 13:04

Weak pound will be hurting this company. Is the divi sustainable.

[danpollard] 07/10/2016 12:02

Price has just ground down to the 155 support area. Looks a very interesting play at this level with the 7% divi yield and a trading update due shortly. The spread is still unfavourable but I bought a couple via a spreadbet. Let's see what happens.

[rjd123] 07/10/2016 11:58

Seems to be having a sell off?

[masurenguy] 18/8/2016 13:47

Interim dividend of 3.3p due yesterday. Shareprice has drifted down by 14% on no news since the interims in June. Next trading update likely to be the pre-close statement towards the end of October.

[chickenrun1] 06/8/2016 17:44

Took the chance to look in the store in Weston Super Mare today - can't say I was impressed, it's a tip.

[masurenguy] 06/8/2016 17:12

Shareprice has declined by 22% since the Brexit vote just over 6 weeks ago. Nothing has changed since the interims were published 2 months ago, other than the appointment of a new FD, when FinnCap issued a price target of 223p, which represents a 25% uplift on Fridays close @ 177.5p.

[masurenguy] 10/7/2016 09:23

Big Box trial is due to be extended into 3 stores next month and if this replicates the initial results from the current trial store it could have a significant impact upon sales in 2017 - 2018. Meanwhile, with a forecasted dividend of 11p this year the yield is almost 6% at Fridays closing Offer price.

The institutional shareholding list has been updated in the header with both small cap fund investment boutiques - Miton and Chelverton - having increased their stake over the past 5 months.