Next (NXT)

Firms operating in different industries have their own yardsticks for performance, beyond the usual metrics like pre-tax profit, revenue and cash flow. These key performance indicators or KPIs for short can help you spot positive or negative trends before they show up in the P&L or balance sheet. And having a handle on the key KPIs for specific sectors can help you decipher updates from ...

Clothing-to-homewares retail giant Next (NXT) reports a pleasing 2.8% rise in full price sales for the second quarter, takings boosted by the UK’s blistering (and prolonged) summer heatwave. However, shares in the retail bellwether reverse 5.8% to £55.94 as Next leaves year-to-January 2019 guidance unchanged, cautioning sales of summer ranges have been pulled forward from August, implying ...

The FTSE 100 is in negative territory, down 45 points to 7,703 despite a strong a performance on Wall Street overnight. This follows reports the Trump administration will ramp up the pressure in its mounting trade war with China. FTSE 100 bank Lloyds (LLOY) gains 2.3% to 63.83p on reporting a 23% increase in statutory pre-tax profits to £3.1bn for the first half to 30 June compared to the ...

Fashion chain Superdry (SDRY) on Thursday posted double-digit growth in full year revenue and underlying pre-tax profit, helped by its wholesale segment, sending its share price racing to the top of the FTSE All-Share in early trade. The company has also declared a special dividend worth 25p per share. Reported pre-tax profit fell to £65.3m, from £84.8m in the previous year due to currency ...

Keystone Investment Trust (KIT) controls assets worth around £273m yet its market value stands at a fraction off £235m. That’s a 13.9% discount, apparently the widest the trust’s gap between its share price (up 10p today at £17.45) and net asset value (NAV) has been for 10 years, according to City analysts. A quick glance at Keystone’s performance tells you why this is. The trust has ...

The main UK stock market indices have struggled this year and many of the biggest investors rank UK stocks as the most unpopular asset class. Is now the time to go against the grain and increase exposure, buying when others are uninterested? We believe it is. A survey by Bank of America Merrill Lynch of 235 fund managers overseeing $684bn of assets of under management found that institutional ...

Packaging company DS Smith (SMDS) has reported a 21% jump in full year adjusted pre-tax profit to £473m with the figures bolstered by acquisitions and recovering paper prices. These figures do however strip out a slew of implied one-off costs relating to acquisitions and restructuring. It also adds back £93m of amortisation non-cash charges. Including all of these costs puts pre-tax ...

Growth-focused investors should keep the faith with fast-fashion brand Quiz (QUIZ:AIM) and buy at 173.5p. Broker Panmure Gordon reckons you could make just over 25% profit in the next 12 months with a 219p price target. In a generally gloomy retail sector, we see scope for upgrades at the rapidly expanding occasion-to-dressy casual wear purveyor, whose brand benefits from celebrity ...

Shares in packaging firm DS Smith (SMDS) shot to the top of the FTSE 100 leader board in early trade on Monday 4 June after unveiling a bold agreement to buy peer Europac. The share price is currently more than 3% higher at 580p, the highest they’ve been in 30 years on the stock market. You might not have heard of DS Smith but you will certainly know its customers, which include Amazon, ASOS ...

Though net asset value (NAV) came under pressure in the half year to 31 March, Keystone Investment Trust’s (KIT) manager James Goldstone (pictured below) insists his portfolio is ‘positioned for the anticipated recovery in value stocks, especially in UK domestic cyclicals'. Furthermore, the fund is ‘well placed to navigate what lies ahead’, confident comments that help the shares 12.5p ...

High street retailer Next (NXT) is back in fashion with investors after upgrading full year sales and profit guidance following a shoot-the-lights-out first quarter (Q1) sales performance. Shares in the Leicester-headquartered high street bellwether skip 6.2% higher to £55.70 on news recent ‘unusually warm weather’ boosted sales. Yet it should be noted Q1 takings were always likely to look ...

Banking group Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has agreed to pay a $4.9bn fine to resolve a US probe into its past sale of mortgage-backed securities. This is a far smaller penalty than many investors feared the bank would have to pay, with some estimates predicting up to $12bn in fines. This sends shares in RBS jumping more than 5% to 290.6p in early trade on Thursday, one of the FTSE 100’s ...

Having bought back a record $23.5bn of its own stock in the first three months of the year, US consumer electronics giant Apple has announced plans to extend its buyback programme by a further $100bn. On this side of the Atlantic several high-profile buybacks have been unveiled recently including HSBC’s (HSBA) pledge to buy $2bn worth of its own stock, Aviva (AV.) launching its biggest ...

With the UK high street highly distressed, the majority of analysts are sitting on the fence with ‘hold’ ratings on one of the retail sector’s biggest constituents, clothing-to-homewares colossus Next (NXT). Long revered for its best-in-class retail disciplines and management team, not to mention an impressive record of surplus capital return, Next is rebuilding investor confidence ...

Experienced investors should be familiar with the price-to-earnings (PE) ratio. For the less experienced, it is the most popular way of valuing companies and their share prices, certainly among retail investors. Even fund managers, equity analysts and other investment professionals commonly use it to help spot investment opportunities. Very easy to calculate and apply; the simplicity of PE ...

There are surprisingly few major stock market announcements in early trade on Tuesday to welcome back investors following the Easter holidays. Grey and wet weather during the extended bank holiday is doing little to lift the negative mood on UK high streets. Share prices of large retail chains, including Marks & Spencer (MKS), Next (NXT) and Associated British Foods (ABF), which owns the ...

London’s FTSE 100 sheds another 53 points to 6,900.2 on Friday, as European markets follow the US indices sharply lower after President Donald Trump announced $60bn worth of tariffs on Chinese imports. On the corporate front, fashion and homewares giant Next (NXT) rallies 3.1% to £47.71 on relief results for the year to January are in line with the guidance given with its Christmas trading ...

In his revered investment book One Up on Wall Street, US fund manager Peter Lynch wrote: ‘Before buying a stock, I like to be able to give a two-minute monologue that covers the reasons I’m interested in it, what has to happen for the company to succeed, and the pitfalls that stand in its path… ‘Once you’re able to tell the story of a stock to your family, your friends, or the ...

Cash-generative clothing-to-homewares purveyor Next’s (NXT) full year results (23 Mar) give investors an opportunity to see how the Simon Wolfson-steered retailer is weathering the current high street storm. In January, Next reported better than feared festive sales and marginally upgraded full year profit guidance, buoyed by improved Christmas performances from its retail stores and online ...

Nothing stays the same forever and the best companies are those which are flexible and innovative enough to adapt. Without this capacity they risk becoming obsolete and are likely to face a steady decline in profit and cash flow until they eventually go bust or the remaining viable bits of the business are broken up and sold. The guiding motto of Andrew Grove, the man behind the rise of US ...