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Anyone know what caused the drop in price today?
"Growth at its High Street business driven by the recent trend towards 'colour therapy', including colouring books for adults"
Think this is on its way through to a new 52 week high.
flying today, gearing up for good results in October.
The M&S franchise at my local hospital where I work is buzzing with customers and has gone down a treat. Will certainly help push the profits up.
Hi all, can anyone explain why the buy back scheme is being actioned. Is this for good or bad reasons?
https://twitter.com/ukshorttracker/status/634665876265009152 Excellent way if getting the short position changes, as soon as they are published.
WH Smith sees rising profits but falling sales as it offers newsagents new franchise opportunity: WH Smith said underlying sales at its High Street shops fell 4% during the half year but is offering independent newsagents the chance to become franchise partners and operate as smaller WH Smith Locals
Whs has always featured in the list of most shorted companies ....I have held these from £7 ish and year on year the price continues to rise... I really doubt the shortest have gained anything but appear not to have learnt from their past. It may just be a few speculators anticipating not so good news with the next earnings release due mid April... Long term I think this share is a class act...all IMO.
WH Smith have just joined the top 5 shorted companies with a declared short position of 8.51% http://www.shortchanged.co.uk/index.html
I agree, and it's interesting. I set up a short at 1370 for understandable reasons. Let's see if the people who are manipulating against me manage to take it just past my stop loss to about 14xx and then it go down the pan to about £2! You have all been warned/advised! Manipulation from my enemies in the British Government. You will think "was this a coincidence" when it happens and no it isn't.
Lots of Directors been exercising options and selling shares straight away this week. Looks like they think the SP has topped. Weekly chart looks like the start of a double top to me. Net cash is declining year on year...The demise of the high street etc etc. Think this is the start of the SP decline....
In my opinion, people could lose a lot of money when cost-cutting can no longer paper over the cracks and the huge amount of investment needed in this business becomes apparent. Good time to sell, folks. Don't say I never warned you.
Yet another year of declining sales is not "a strong performance" and I'd expect the shares will continue to move sideways until cost cutting finally runs out of steam.
Not impressed at all with results this morning. Think the sp will continue to struggle, at least in the next couple of weeks.
WH Smith Plc (SMWH.L) Announced, in its pre close update, that its travel business continues good performance and the new store opening programme remains on track both in the UK and internationally. In the high street business, its focus on gross margin gains and tight cost control continues to deliver a good performance. Both businesses remain highly cash generative. The company expects the outcome for the year to 31 August 2014 to be in line with market expectations.
Dreadful strategy, holding up profits by a thread with all the cost cutting, I'll reiterate, cost-cuts have a finite life. Any hint of drop in profits will will see this SP drop heavily, in my view. It's been at this level for a while now and it might be at point of capitulation.
PEG 1.2 to 2.4 REV -4.60% to -2.70% PBT 5.90% to 3.70% EPS 10.40% to 6.10% Looks like the growth just evaporated
Walk into most WH Smith outlets and you can see the desperate need for investment; there is now even a twitter account set up devoted to their threadbare carpets. Year on year sales continue to decline, with profit made by cost-cutting. Of course, this has worked well for share holders to begin, but ask yourself how long that model can be sustained. Wouldn't touch it now.
WH Smith to benefit from high street progress Improvements on the high street and in travel will benefit WH Smith (SMWH.L) according to Investec, which has increased its target price for the stock from £12.00 to £14.00. Analyst Kate Calvert reiterated Investec’s ‘buy’ recommendation on anticipation of strong first half results for the newsagent and further indication of franchising plans. She said she was also expecting more detail from management on its personalised card business Funkypigeon.com. ‘We expect management to say more on WH Smith newsagent franchising and potentially on Funkypigeon, which could be a hidden gem if the Photobox (owners of Moonpig) valuation being talked about in the press is anything to go by,’ she said. Calvert expects profits for the first half of the year before tax to fall slightly due to pension commitments with second half profits becoming stronger following ‘steady progress’ from the high street and as travel continues its cyclical recovery
There is a smattering of noteworthy results on offer this week. One of the UK’s oldest high street names, WH Smith (SMWH) releases its finals on Thursday. Again, broker Deutsche Bank has reiterated its “Buy” recommendation, and upped its target price for the retailer from 800p to 915p. UK bank Barclays also increased its target price from 875p to 935p, keeping an “Overweight” rating. On August 22nd, WH Smith said it expected its full year results to be in line with market expectations as it continues to focus on tight cost control and improving margins. In June WH Smith warned that like-for-like sales fell 6% year-on-year across the group for the 14 weeks to June 8th; this prompted analysts to question how long the retailer could continue with falling sales as it executes its turnaround plan.
or not to short? That is the question.
Apparently not just a few branches to convert to convenience stores as Morrisons have already done. http://www.retail-week.com/sectors/entertainment/asda-in-talks-to-buy-bust-hmv/5047195.article?blocktitle=More-News-and-Insight&contentID=5271
Primark to sell music CDs in some UK stores http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19783564 GLA
failure. "The stationery retailer WH Smith is returning to the CDs and DVDs market following the collapse of HMV" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9919996/WH-Smith-brings-back-DVDs-after-HMV-failure.html