Thursday preview: M&S reports third quarter trading

Credit Suisse (CS) said despite another quarter of soft comparisons for general merchandise (GM), it expects like-for-like (LFL) sales of 0% in the division. In food, the broker predicts a 1% rise in LFL sales.

"With discounts of 30% or more widespread across the store for several weeks we have also cut 20 basis points from second half gross margins, partly offset by lower operating expenditure," CS said. "We now forecast PBT of £682m and have cut another 2.5% from earnings per share."

CS lowered its target price to 475p from 500p and reiterated a 'underpeform' rating for the stock. The analyst cut 2.5% from its full year earnings per share estimate to account for "another disappointing Christmas".

However, CS said it did not believe that the impact from adverse weather should be considered a distraction from the underlying issues with M&S, namely the need to downsize the UK GM store estate.

"After five years of downgrades, we remain very cautious about M&S recovery prospects and our forecasts for the next year years remain c10% below consensus. We expect M&S to continue to lose market share in GM due to its margin-focussed strategy and platform changes, while competition continues to build."

The company's sales plunged 1.9% in the second quarter.

Thursday 7 January


INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
3i Infrastructure, Big Yellow Group, Caledonia Investments, Intermediate Capital Group, Mckay Securities, Norcros, Plastics Capital

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Aberdeen New Dawn Investment Trust, Auto Trader Group , Bisichi Mining, Dairy Crest Group, F&C Global Smaller Companies, ICAP, Johnson Matthey, Latham (James), Monks Inv Trust, Northern 2 VCT, Northern 3 VCT, Pinewood Group , Plus500 Ltd (DI), Solid State, United Carpets Group, Workspace Group

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE
Land Securities Group

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE
British Land Company, Investors Capital Trust 'A' Shares, Verizon Communications

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
Business Climate Indicator (EU) (10:00)
Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)
Economic Sentiment Indicator (EU) (10:00)
Factory Orders (GER) (11:00)
Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)
PMI Construction (GER) (08:30)
PMI Retail (EU) (09:10)
PMI Retail (GER) (09:10)
Retail Sales (EU) (10:00)
Unemployment Rate (EU) (10:00)

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE
European Investment Trust

TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS
Persimmon

UK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
New Car Registrations (09:00)

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE
Aberdeen Asset Management, Character Group, Conygar Investment Company, DotDigital Group, easyHotel, European Investment Trust, Henderson European Focus Trust, ITE Group, JPMorgan Asian Inv Trust, Lakehouse, Lowland Investment Co, Paragon Group Of Companies, Servoca, Topps Tiles