Financial Trading Blog
Stock of the day 03/06/2016 – J Sainsbury PLC
After a bit of a wobble at the start of the year (with the supermarket’s better than expected Christmas sales failing to outweigh the general turmoil that plagued January) 2016 soon began to turn around for Sainsbury’s.
The second half of February saw the supermarket surge to £2.65, while a rise across the first half of March (all the way to £2.80) was cemented with its fourth quarter results. That update saw Sainsbury’s post its first sales increase in 2 years, with like-for-like sales jumping 0.1%. Things only got better in April, the confirmation of Sainsbury’s acquisition of Home Retail Group (i.e. Argos and Habitat) causing the stock to hit a 20 month high of £2.98.
(Source: IT-Finance.com 03/06/2016)
Yet soon after this peak Sainsbury’s began to suffer. The stock trickled lower at the start of May, before plunging from £2.88 to £2.52 in the space of a week as investors reacted violently to the supermarket’s full year figures. On the surface things looked good for Sainsbury’s, the company swinging from a £72 million loss to £548 million in pre-tax profit in the space of 12 months. However, underlying annual profits dropped by nearly 14% to £587 million with like-for-like sales sliding 0.9%, both numbers far outshining that headline increase in pre-tax profit.
From its post full year-update nadir the stock did manage to pick itself up as May came to a close, hitting £2.70 by the end of the month. However, there was another ugly surprise around the corner for Sainsbury’s investors. At the start of June the latest Kantar supermarket figures revealed the company’s sales had fallen 1.2% for the 12 weeks to May 22nd (its worst performance in nearly 12 months), inspired by its decision to ditch ‘buy one get on free’ offers earlier in the year. This sparked a 4.5% dive from the stock, leaving Sainsbury’s at a current trading price of £2.57 (IT-Finance.com, 03/06/2016).
Given that drop in sales it is unlikely that next Wednesday’s first quarter update will provide Sainsbury’s much to celebrate, especially with the CMA also recently announcing a review into the supermarket’s acquisition of Home Retail Group.
J Sainsbury PLC has a consensus rating of ‘Hold’ with an average target price of £2.57.
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