Slower growth for Starbucks January 23, 2014 Starbucks reported yesterday that sales at stores in its US-dominated Americas region cooled more than analysts expected in its latest quarter. The world’s biggest coffee chain boosted its 2014 earnings per share forecast to a range of $2.59 (£1.56) to $2.67, from $2.55 to $2.65 before, sending shares up 0.9 per cent to after hours. [...]
Record sales lift Poundland float prospects January 23, 2014 POUNDLAND has boasted record sales over the key Christmas trading period, further paving the way for a potential initial public offering (IPO), expected to take place within the coming months. The bargain chain, which plans to double its UK presence over the next decade, said new shop openings helped sales rise more than 12.4 per [...]
Best of the Brokers for 24 January 2014 January 23, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com WH SMITH UBS keeps its neutral rating and nudged its target price 50p higher to 1,050p following the retailer’s Christmas trading update. The broker is cheered by WH Smith’s first like-for-like rise in travel sales since 2009 and thinks rising air traffic could boost [...]
Winter storms fail to dampen enthusiasm for EasyJet January 23, 2014 Winter storms and power outages at Gatwick airport over Christmas have failed to dampen passengers enthusiasm for low cost airline EasyJet. Seats flown grew by 4.1 per cent to 16.1m, with passengers carried increasing by 4.2 per cent to 14.3m. EasyJet's system of seating allocation introduced in 2012 helped grow revenue per seat by 3.4 [...]
China, Japan, and the row that shook Davos January 22, 2014 JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe raised the terrifying prospect of conflict in east Asia yesterday, comparing Japan and China’s cold relationship to relations between the UK and Germany in the years before World War One. At the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos yesterday, Abe told journalists that while China and Japan had a [...]
Margins grow despite dip in WH Smith sales January 22, 2014 WH SMITH hailed a pick-up in trading across its travel outlets over Christmas and said it was confident of making further progress this year, despite a continued decline in likefor-like sales. In what has become a long-running theme, the retailer said like-for-like sales fell four per cent in the 20 weeks to 18 January but [...]
Bottom Line: No change is no cause for concern – for now January 22, 2014 FOR ALMOST the entire decade that Kate Swann ran WH Smith, Christmas sales at the stationery retailer fell. Yet over the same period, its share price has tripled – climbing from 2004 levels of around £3.50 to a close of £10.43 yesterday. Its most recent update proved that investors – who’ve long cheered its ability [...]
JD Wetherspoon reveals rise in Christmas sales January 22, 2014 JD WETHERSPOON reported strong results over the Christmas and New Year period yesterday, the latest in a series of UK pubs to benefit from the holiday season. Like-for-like sales for the twelve weeks of the second quarter were up by 6.7 per cent and total sales by 10.6 per cent, while year to date like-for-like [...]
Quercus puts itself up for sale as losses mount January 22, 2014 QUERCUS, the independent publisher behind Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, yesterday unexpectedly announced that it is up for sale. In a surprise stock market announcement, the Baker Street-based firm said that it had appointed mergers and acquisitions specialists Livingstone Partners to advise on the sale process. The firm said it believed it was “in the [...]
Why Sainsbury’s is SocGen’s favourite supermarket January 22, 2014 When it came to supermarkets’ Christmas performance in the UK, the discounters claimed the victory. Aldi and Lidl saw sales leap, both increasing their market shares. It was good news for high-end store Waitrose, too, which also saw a bumper festive period. It’s the Big Four – or, at least, three of them (Tesco, Asda [...]