Marks And Spencer Share Discussion Threads

[casholaa] 23/7/2014 13:13

Come on you b*tch. £5.20.

[casholaa] 18/7/2014 11:57

September? I'd say not less than 520p -but a lot can happen between now and then.

[buywell2] 18/7/2014 11:31

buywell2 20 May'14 - 08:07 - 3476 of 3507 0 0 edit

400p by end of Sept anyone ?

[johnwise] 10/7/2014 11:56

Bargain hungry shoppers seeking new summer wardrobes send Primark sales soaring 22%

Read more:

[johnwise] 09/7/2014 15:51

Daily Mail..

Marks & Spencer's biggest investors warn time is running out for boss Marc Bolland to fix the business


Investors at the annual meeting rounded on the board with one, Jeffrey Judelson, from London, saying 'this must be the slowest turnaround in history'.
Another asked whether the inability to hit performance targets and trigger bonuses for staff was a 'failure of leadership'.

A number drew comparisons with the strong performance at rival Next saying M&S had been comprehensively outperformed.

John Farmer, a serial attendee at annual meetings, questioned whether M&S could successfully emulate the success at Next with Bolland at the helm. Chairman Robert Swannell said: 'To describe this board as complacent is utterly misplaced. It is both challenging and supportive in equal measure. I take my hat off to Next. What they have done has been consistent over 10 or 20 years.

'What we need to do is the same step by step by boring step so that we are consistent in delivering the returns – that's the secret of success. That's why Next is one of the top five performing shares in the FTSE 100 – you don't achieve this in a quarter, a year or two years. It has to be consistent over a decade.'

[redhill] 09/7/2014 13:35

We have deserted because the quality has gone downhill.

[folderboy] 08/7/2014 16:04

"Older shopper numbers are inevitably dwindling" . . surely they are not. Ageing demographic and so forth. Disposable income of the 60+ generation should make MKS a winner - the real issue is surely why so many of this generation (my generation) have deserted M&S.

[zulu001] 08/7/2014 13:39

Steve Clayton of Mirabaud.

As we have said before, M&S's biggest issue is customer recruitment. Younger generations will eat M&S foods perfectly happily, but they won't wear their clothes. Converting a 30-something brand rejecter to start shopping at M&S is an uphill struggle. Older shopper numbers are inevitably dwindling, so M&S has to gain new converts to stand still.

Next, Primark, New Look, Zara and others have comprehensively captured the territory that M&S needs to return to strong growth. To have 11% market share and be under-represented in the younger demographic means that in your core, you are winning well above 11%. That is an unusually high percentage share for a clothing retailer, and rarely seen in major nations. That in turn means that you are always under assault and this can be seen in M&S's operating margin, which is little more than half the level of the 1990s.

It is very, very difficult to reinvent a fashion brand. House of Fraser has just about managed it, going from dull and dusty, to more designer-led, but a department store is less constrained by its name than a universal retailer is. We expect that Food will become more and more dominant in driving returns at M&S as the clothing side continues to struggle.

Longer term, there is an excellent pairs trade, long Next and short M&S.

Whisper it not, but the real risk for M&S is that the increasingly promotional food retail sector starts to drag customers away from the food business, leaving both arms firing on less than all cylinders. Noting that performance differential between M&S and Waitrose does not reassure.

[alphahunter] 08/7/2014 09:09

Asagi,

I found shorting far more tricky than being long in these markets, naturally.
I think that the bulls' argument for being long in MKS is the generation of FcF at this stage, with peak investment behind us. I may succomb to that argument for a week or two.

No position here.

[johnwise] 05/7/2014 07:18

Fashion faux pas dogging Marc Bolland: Marks & Spencer
boss under pressure as clothing sales still floundering

From benny
"The problems are obvious. I doubt the board even step inside a store to
find out why. The menswear has been a disaster for years -
quality has collapsed (but the prices haven't) and fashion
sense is stuck in 1993. I don't need cutting edge fashion.
What I want are fairly classic style casual outfits
(anything but the nightmare that is Blue Harbor) ,
suits and clothes in a range of colors that use high quality
fabric and construction ideally sold in a bright airy store.
These days its made in China rubbish on shelves piled high
in a ridiculously narrow range of sizes sold in dingy stores.
Even the underwear quality has taken a nosedive"

Read more:

[asagi] 04/7/2014 10:43

As a short, what gets my goat here is how the shares don't really reflect the earnings forecasts and sales/profit trends.

MKS is stagnating.

The dividend has not advanced meaningfully since 2012. Group sales are not keeping up with inflation. While food is doing very nicely, general merchandise is flat. The last profits showed a small increase.

In the last year, according to -, forecasts for 2015 EPS have fallen from 37.2p to 33.8p. That equates to an EPS increase in 2015 of less than 1%.

Yet the shares trade at almost 13 times forecast earnings.

2016 EPS is supposed to be almost 10% higher but I will believe it when I see it.

A P/E of around 9 would be fairer, putting the shares on a big yield to reflect the risk of long-term decline. Any explanation?

Asagi (short MKS)

[wernluck] 02/7/2014 19:13

Alpha,
i thought you were talking about the share price there for a mo!
"The 20% summer offer came in my inbox," :)

Spinner
MKS has shown no intent to the upside.Period.
Having said that,we are still messing around inside the controlling swing(i.e
inside the A to B swing)
So basically on the daily chart nothing has changed!
The sing low at pivot A is still intact.
The trend is still up as this swing low not broken.
If long from the test of the lows(that was my strategy)stops would still be under
pivot A..
The job of this downswing is to take out the last swing low..
It is all aboout pivot A..imho

[spinner] 25/6/2014 14:48

Wernluck...would appreciate your observations on the share price chart currently ?. It does not seem to be turning out as hoped. Do you see a resistance level around £4.15 again ?

[casholaa] 24/6/2014 15:35

Good time for an opportunistic 'sale' thx to asos

[mollokoplus] 24/6/2014 15:33

Performance share award, that's a laugh, wonder how much they would have got if they did well!

[mollokoplus] 24/6/2014 13:24

Time Richard green or mike Ashley took an interest, this share is stagnant.

[casholaa] 24/6/2014 11:39

Time mks brought the mini-skirt back into fashion.

[casholaa] 20/6/2014 20:38

Weird intraday charts (above) for retailers from 3pm onward????

[alphahunter] 20/6/2014 18:28

The 20% summer offer came in my inbox, well technically the day before Summer.
MKS down 1.5% as a result.

[mollokoplus] 20/6/2014 15:18

Bolland out price up, simples

[casholaa] 20/5/2014 19:56

What they need to do is add short-term cheap clothing stock that is well designed and also designed for the european body and not the oriental body. They need european designers and cutters not oriental ones.

[wernluck] 20/5/2014 17:14

hi bracke
great veggie lunches in the Foodhall atm!
fill your (free) little bag;)

[bracke] 20/5/2014 15:39

wernluck

What's this!! You an M%S food shopper!!

Those Median Charts must be doing you proud.

[leadersoffice] 20/5/2014 15:18

Interesting retrace.Bolland says he has investor backing.