Ocado
Ocado has been something of an enigma for the market for years. Although they provide a direct to consumer grocery delivery service, the line has always been that the real value lies in their technical know-how over how to develop these operations behind the scenes for other retailers. They provide the infrastructure for Morrisons home delivery shopping and late last year announced a deal with French retailer Casino. This really moved the market and the share price has doubled since then so today’s news of a tie up with ICA of Sweden could well produce another interesting response from the market.
- Three Quick Facts: Ocado, ASOS, AG Barr
- Companies Reporting: Kingfisher, Ocado, Carnival, FeverTree
- Companies Reporting: Ocado, Haleon, Taylor Wimpey
J Sainsbury
Mike Coupe, the chief executive of J Sainsbury, was rather unfortunately caught singing the show-tune “we’re in the money” ahead of a TV interview over the proposed Asda merger a couple of days ago. However, looking at today’s full year results from the grocer, it seems as if there’s no shortage of matters to be cheering already – group sales are up 9% and a 7.6% increase in the dividend has been tabled, too. Interestingly though the price wars continue – profit growth was a turgid 1.4% despite that big jump in sales. Arguably all good evidence as to why shareholders should be throwing their weight behind the proposed merger with Asda.
Sage Group
There’s a mid-year statement out from Sage Group, the providers of accountancy software. Having announced a downward revision to full year guidance a couple of weeks back, the market is likely to have accepted any shock factor here and instead will be likely focusing on management assurances that the cause of slower than anticipated revenue growth has now been identified and actions taken to reverse the position. Half year revenues are up 7% from the same period last year.