Debenhams Share Discussion Threads

[aleman] 07/1/2015 15:01

The poor sales figures at Boohoo are much more relevant to today's price weakness. The question is whether all fashion retailers have suffered or have boohoo lost sales to the others that started promotions in November. I suspect the latter. There is always one fashion retailer that misjudges fashion and/or weather in the key autumn and Christmas period. Maybe it is just Boohoo's turn this time. DEB got lots of good media coverage over this period, not that it guarantees success, but I retain my optimism.

(I note boohoo did a charity t-shirt promotion at the beginning of December when it was cold. Seems poor timing to me.)

[m4rtinu] 07/1/2015 12:58

My holding was stopped out at 75.5p. Happy with the rise from 61p. A small profit to offset other losses.

[simon templar qc] 07/1/2015 12:04

Laura Ashley down 3.6% currently.

BOO

BOO blames high St discounting

[isis] 07/1/2015 12:01

Not entirely relevant but BOO.com down 40%

[aleman] 07/1/2015 11:41

I agree. I saw the cafe and restaurant in November packed (no seats available at all), probably with people who were waiting for the massive queues at tills to subside. I very much doubt Lidl and Aldi made any difference to that but they certainly affected other supermarkets. Sainbury shares were up at the open and are flat now, as well, so they don't seem to have "jitters" from their trading figures, although there could be something else in the market casuing nervousness. DEB have made significant changes in store and supposedly upgraded their online offering. I can't guarantee they've done well but I suspect they'll succeed or fail on the changes they've made rather than what the general market is doing.

Edit - it looks even odder now that DEB might have fallen 5%+ due to SBRY's update when SBRY shares are barely down at all.

[harry_david] 07/1/2015 11:39

I agree, this sell off does not make sense on trading outlook. Maybe a bid rumour gone sour. Deb yoy could be outstanding after last years debacle.

[isis] 07/1/2015 11:23

Well I think the Supemarkets have their own problems - DEB's very much like HOF though - may even do better than them.

[simon templar qc] 07/1/2015 11:01

Sainsburys sales fell near 1.7% I think its sending jitters down any retailers. I happen to think retailers not done as good as some think in general.

House of Frazer interesting figures they appear better than John Lewis who saw flat store sales.

[maurillac] 06/1/2015 14:08

well it looks like the city shysters know what the trading update will look like. either that or they read this thread ;)
m

[pillion] 06/1/2015 13:24

Aye !! encouraging is the chart
How do we interpret macd ?

[isis] 06/1/2015 12:53

Well they are normally around the 200 mark so it is a significant rise as far as online activity is concerned and has been very consistent.

It should mean something somewhere!

[essentialinvestor] 06/1/2015 12:10

isis, well noticed and you flagged the data several times, so some
probably own you a thank you.

[isis] 06/1/2015 11:55

Pretty confident with the Alexa data that they have done well over Xmas.

Still at 63 only 10 behinds M&S.

[aleman] 06/1/2015 11:18

200-day averages turn up.

[aleman] 05/1/2015 17:11

Yet more evidence that Debenhams did heavy business in November. (The Winter Spectacular Sale started two weeks before Black Friday and the opening day was exceptionally busy.)



What they got, thanks to Black Friday, was a huge and unprecedented peak in demand on November 28th (four weeks before Christmas) that left John Lewis stretched and the likes of M&S and Debenhams struggling to deliver.

Andy Street insists Black Friday wasn't necessarily great for consumers either.

John Lewis' "never knowingly undersold" policy means they regularly monitor what their competitors’ prices and pledge to match them.

According to Andy Street, while shoppers undoubtedly benefited from rock bottom prices on the day, thereafter the discounting was less aggressive than in previous years.


Lots of questions are being asked about margins but I visited the stores and wensite and didn't think the savings were that great so I think margins will be fine. It seems they have dragged Christmas sales forwards. THe real question is whether that has stolen sales from other retailers. I suspect they will have and Debenhams will have had a good Christmas but I'm not sure they will be able to repeat it next year if other retailers adopt similar preChristmas policies.

[isis] 05/1/2015 14:07

Black Friday is here to stay I'm afraid as well as all the other silly named days they associate with shopping and Xmas.
There is no doubt Debenhams have had good sales online from the Alexa data but we will see how well they have done on margins etc. pretty soon.

[simon templar qc] 05/1/2015 13:44

m4rtinue

Thanks for your input. Interesting trading update from John Lewis today overall sales up but shop sales flat! Caution on "Black Friday" Andy Street has sought to warn Black Friday discounting seems to have brought forward Christmas trading the suggestion its hit margins. Lessons learned!

[m4rtinu] 03/1/2015 11:36

"Tempus" in the Times has picked Debenhams in a portfolio of shares for 2015. HOWEVER, his portfolio last year was down 10% (ftse down 2%). In addition, the table in the article had Debenhams share price @ 15.5p. I think we would all pick them at that price!!

The DEBs update on 13th Jan 2015 is clearly key for the immediate future. I have a small holding of c 1500 shares (don't laugh!!). I bought @ 61p and am trying to improve my skills by putting in a stop loss, to protect profit. And adjusting this as share price rises. Obv run the risk of being caught out by, larger than average, dips.

Having criticised Tempus. I hold Sainsbury, Centrica. They were supposed to be reliable divi payers and non-eventful in terms of share price As you might imagine I am sitting on a loss on these, at present. Though I did make some profit when they rose, but bought back in too early. Also hold Carillion.

Clearly the above is not advice!! Just for interest. Cheers MU

[harry_david] 03/1/2015 09:11

Isis, according to FT, Jefferies have done detailed non food survey which said that Debs website and deliveries now match Next and in some respects are better.

[m4rtinu] 01/1/2015 19:49

Ale - thanks.

[aleman] 01/1/2015 03:24

m4rtinu - the trend lines were drawn in by me by eye 6 weeks ago. I could have drawn a multitude of parallel channels from that share price history but it would have been confusing so I went for the ones that I felt looked most appropriate based on fundamental analysis of the shares and the timing of updates and results to come in the near future.

I would not dream of letting a computer do such analysis for me.

[isis] 31/12/2014 18:31

I think the Cotton price is probably the least expensive part of the clothing they sell.
Been ranking very high on Alexa and almost up with M&S so should be trading well but margins are the key.

[simon templar qc] 31/12/2014 18:28

Trend good cotton prices falling all depends now on how trading over Christmas has been.

However next year is another matter looks like the global economy is slowing down as for the UK I expect inflation to fall below 1% and there is a danger of deflation.