Clothing and homeware retailer Next was one of just a handful of FTSE 100 risers on Thursday after the firm raised sales and profits forecasts for the full year.
At £68.82 per share the Next share price was 0.4% higher on the day.
Full-price sales rose 6.9% during the three months to July, it said, with corresponding revenues up 3.7% since the last trading statement on 19 June.
Next had been expecting a 0.5% increase since that latest update.
Online sales were up 10% between May and July, it said, resulting in 4.1% growth for the first half. In-store sales increased a more modest 2.2%, pushing first-half physical sales 0.9% higher.
The business also said that “clearance rates, to date, are ahead of last year and ahead of our internal forecasts.” Such end-of-season sales have added around £4 million to pre-tax profits, it noted.
Guidance Raised
Recent strong trading has encouraged Next to lift its full-price sales guidance for the full financial year to January 2024. Profits are now tipped to reach £4.68 billion, up from an earlier estimate of £4.67 billion. This would represent a 1.8% increase from last year’s levels.
The company also raised its pre-tax profit forecasts by £10 million, to £845 million. Profits are now predicted to fall 2.9% year on year versus the previously-predicted 4.1% decline.
Thursday’s update is the latest in a series of impressive updates from the FTSE company. Next raised also raised guidance in mid-June’s update as it announced a 9.3% year-on-year rise on full-price sales in the first weeks of the new financial year.
Strong trading back then had been driven by warmer weather, it said. The firm had predicted a 5% sales decline over the period.
Magic Tricks
Charlie Huggins, head of equities at Wealth Club, said that “Next pulled a rabbit out of the hat on 19 June when it said sales had been much better than expected in the first seven weeks of the year. Since then sales growth has remained robust with Next ending the first half strongly.”
He added that “despite this excellent first half performance, Next remains cautious and is expecting sales to be broadly flat in the second half, a material slowdown.”
While Huggins said this probably reflects “a degree of conservatism” at the retailer, he predicted that higher interest rates could be more damaging in the second half of the year.
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