Category: Trading updates

Profit Warnings: They’re just not all made the same…

Crawshaw & Premier Foods warned on trading in Sept & Oct respectively: Negative profit (or sales) warnings are never good Nor are they neutral but, even if they are all negative, some are more negative than others Existential, business-model threatening warnings: See Monetise, Jessops, Blockbuster, Woollies etc. as existentially-challenged companies More recently, Crawshaw (high PER…

Tread carefully; recent FTSE rally inflates already hard-to-justify valuations

A stock picker’s market? Stock prices — when did 25x EPS & a 2% yield become ‘cheap’? Recent and regular profit warnings hint at a degree of fragility re. stretched valuations. Restaurant Group, Whitbread, Next, and Sports Direct have all seen their share prices come undone after being rated in the high-teens to mid-twenties on…

Domino’s Pizza UK: Sustaining the Growth

Domino’s Pizza UK – Quality at an Unreasonable Price? Domino’s UK’s business model is high margin, highly efficient, and spins off cash. However, LfLs in its recent Q3 statement were down (from +14.7% in Q3 2015 to +10.5% for its important UK market, which accounted for 93% of group revenue in the period). Meanwhile, DOM…

Leisure Spending, JDW, Brexit

Barclaycard has updated on Q2 spending, says ‘business as usual’ Barclaycard says consumer spending was +3.1% in Q2 April was +1.9% (known to have been sluggish) & May & June were +3.6% Spending in pubs & restaurants (+12.1% and +11.6%) was impacted by football & by higher contactless limits (£20 to £30). This will annualise…

Leisure & the Brexit vote – Assessing the Impact

The initial financial impact. 52% of voters (38% of the electorate) voted to leave the EU on 23 June The FTSE100 fell then rose. It is now +3% since 23 June. But FTSE100 is an international index. In US$ terms (pound down 13%), it is down 10%. The largely domestic FTSE250 is down 9% in…