M&S – Decline In All Sectors Produces Rise of 2%

Marks & Spencer MKS CEO Steve Rowe comes out of his corner fighting  with claims that in the half year to the end of September, good progress has been made on the immediate burning issues which he faced a year ago, and that Marks is now a robust and profitable business. Only in Food are […]

Ocado – English As A Foreign Language

Ocado Group OCDO got so bogged down in jargon in its half year results to the 28th May that one can easily believe they must have done it deliberately purely to show how clever they are compared to those of us who can only speak ordinary English which everybody else understands. Thus the report is […]

Lloyds Admits To “Positive Operating Jaws”

Lloyds Bank LLOY admits to having “positive operating jaws” which helped it to produce a strong first quarter financial performance and a significant improvement in statutory profit before tax, despite disagreeing with the house builders (see below) about the state of the UK economy, which the bank says still presents a challenging operating environment. As […]

Weak Sterling Continues to Hit Primark

Associated British Foods ABF expects excellent progress in adjusted operating profit and earnings per share for the half year to the 4th March. Primark sales are expected to be11% ahead at constant currency rates and 21% ahead at actual exchange rates but on a like for like basis UK Primark sales will show growth of […]

Persimmon Full Of Optimism

Persimmon PSN ends 2016 full of optimism and  certainly does not share the gloom displayed by many of its competitors. Revenue rose by 8% during the year and average sales prices were increased by a modest 4% which compares favourably with the greed shown by many of the household names in the industry. Competitive mortgage […]

Wetherspoon Worried By High Debt Risks

Wetherspoon JDW First quarter like for like sales rose by 3.5% and total sales by 2.3%. Operating margins gowever jumped from last year’s 5.8% to 8.6% and 7% is anticipated for the full year. The rise in debt levels have become a cause for concern, indeed such a cause for concern that the company thought […]

Foreign Exchange Tailwinds Arrive To Help The Weak.

Cape plc CIU Companies with problems are now beginning to benefit from the collapse of sterling or as Cape puts it, foreign exchange tailwinds. Profit before tax for the half year to 30th July slumped by 30% after a 10% rise in revenue. Weak margins in the UK were partly offset by Asia Pacific performing […]

Persimmon – Clouds On The Horizon ?

Persimmon PSN has been having a rough time during the past few months. In April its shares fell 6% on worries about slowing sales and then between 24th and 27th June its share price fell off a cliff after the referendum results with a two day decline of about a third, leaving it at £14 […]