Marks & Spencer is on track to re-enter the UK’s list of top-rated companies for the first time in four years amid hopes of a permanent revival at the high street stalwart.
M&S fell out of the FTSE 100 list of the UK’s most valuable stock market companies in 2019 as sales and profits slid amid heavy competition from rivals such as Primark and the major supermarkets.
The retailer’s share price has surged this year, taking its market value to more than £4bn, after it thrived during the cost of living crisis by improving the value for money of its clothing and food.
Its balance of high street and online retail has enabled M&S to bring in fresh new brands to complement its own and to offer cheap returns and click and collect services, giving it an edge over purely online retailers such as Asos.
M&S has also promised to restart dividend payments in November for the first time since 2020 after strong sales of denim, dresses and office wear as well as more affordable food lifted profits.
Underlying pre-tax profits rose by 21% to £476m in the year to 1 April, with sales increasing 9.6% to nearly £12bn.
Sophie Lund-Yates, a lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “We have seen Marks & Spencer’s share price rocket over 72% so far this year. That is partly because it started from a quite low base as there were a lot of concerns around performance and woes of the high street.”
She said investors and analysts had been sceptical about M&S’s latest turnaround plans after several previous efforts fell flat but perception was changing after a lot of “peddling hard” by the retailer’s management team under its chair, Archie Norman.
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“There is a feeling that M&S has dished up something really quite incredible, particularly on clothing and home, where they have modified processes and been a lot more strict with the clothing allowed to appear on the rack which has improved fashion perception. The proposition is slightly less frumpy but still has that old-school perception of good quality.”
However, Lund-Yates said M&S’s shares were still down by almost a quarter on five years ago and the retailer “still had quite a few challenges remaining”.
