Next shares: "shining jewel" in UK retail reports further sales growth

6th January 2022
Stuart Fieldhouse
Equities
Next, The Retail Sector, FTSE 250 Stock, Members Only

In the eight weeks to Christmas day, Next’s (LSE:NXT) full price sales rose 20% compared to pre-pandemic levels. That was £70m ahead of management expectations and, as a result, full year pre-tax profit guidance has been raised £22m to £822m. That would be a 9.8% improvement on two years ago.

Next believes that next year, full price sales will be up 7% on the current year. Pre-tax profit is expected to rise 4.6%.

A further special dividend of 160p per share was announced. The group plans to return to the “pre-pandemic ordinary dividend cycle in the year ahead”.

Next shares have started to slip after hitting a recent peak at 8328 GBX on Tuesday when markets in the UK reopened. The shares hit a recent high of 8426 on 9 December.

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Stuart Fieldhouse

Stuart Fieldhouse has spent 25 years in journalism and marketing, including as a wealth management editor for the Financial Times group, covering capital markets and international private banking, and as an investment banking correspondent for Euromoney in Hong Kong. He was the founder editor of The Hedge Fund Journal.

Stuart has worked at CMC Markets, supporting the re-launch of its global financial spread betting and CFD trading platforms. He is also the author of two books on trading, published by Financial Times Pearson. Based in The Armchair Trader’s London office, Stuart continues to advise fund managers, private banks, family offices and other financial institutions.

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