High street retailer Next (NXT) has pulled a rabbit out of the hat again with its Q4 trading update.
In the nine weeks to 27 December, full price sales rose by 10.6% compared with guidance of a 7% increase.
Together with positive trading so far this month, sales for the year to the end of January will be around £50 million above the most recent forecast.
That translates into a £15 million uplift in pre-tax profit for the year to £1.15 billion, a 13.7% increase on last year, and a 16.1% increase in earnings per share.
| Price: £140 +2.9% | P/E: 21.3x |
| Market Cap: £16.3bn | Yield: 1.8% |
NEXT’s theme tune should be ‘Oops, I did it again’ given how many times it has raised guidance for the current financial year.
The company has nailed it online, with NEXT brand sales up 6.5% and other labels up 11.9% in the fourth quarter to date while in-store sales were up just 3.5%.
For the year to January 2027, the firm is forecasting full-price sales growth of 4.5% and pre-tax profit £1.2 billion, also up 4.5%, but we can safely say these are conservative targets.
It’s worth remembering NEXT is issuing £421 million of B shares this month which it will redeem and cancel meaning a payout of 360p per existing share.
Read the press release here: https://www.nextplc.co.uk/investors
Read related news: https://sharesify.com/next-to-return-cash-via-b-shares/
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