The coming week will see results announcements from some of the market’s biggest retail names including athleisure wear seller JD Sports and supermarket giant Tesco.
There will also be a trading update from recent IPO flop Delvieroo, as well as stock broker Plus500, bar chain Revolution and online booze seller Naked Wines.
On the macro front, the key headlines will be UK GDP data as well as the latest retail sales figures.
JD Sports caps off stellar year
Final results from retailer JD Sports Fashion PLC (LON:JD.) are unlikely to throw up any major surprises after the company said in January that it expects its full-year pre-tax profit to be at least £400mln, a major improvement on market expectations of £295mln.
The group said demand over the Christmas period had been robust with like-for-like sales in the second half rising over 5% as customers flooded in through both its physical and retail sales channels.
Instead, investors will be looking at what exactly is behind the company’ stellar performance, as well as how it plans to maintain it into the current year, with the firm having already guided for 2021 profit growth of 5-10%.
There will also be interest in the impact of the latest lockdown restrictions, as well as whether JD is planning any more acquisitions.
What more will Plus add?
Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS) shares are down by almost a quarter from their high in 2018 before European and UK financial regulators cracked down on the way the high-risk investment products are sold to retail punters.
But since the start of last year shares in the FTSE 250-listed operator of a platform that allows leveraged trading of stocks, forex and cryptocurrencies are up by more than 70% as traders happily frolicked in the financial volatility of the pandemic.
Ahead of a first-quarter trading update on Tuesday, Plus500 last month put out a short statement issued ahead of an extraordinary general meeting trading this year has remained strong, with customer income tracking ahead of the previous quarter but monthly trading results remain volatile.
“Given the company's continued robust performance, and supported by its market-leading proprietary trading platform, its flexible and scalable business model, its robust financial position and consistent track record, the board remains confident about the outlook for Plus500,” the company said, echoing similar comments from rival IG Group.
Revolution Bars readies for reopening
Half-year results from Revolution Bars Group PLC (LON:RBG) are unlikely to make for pleasant reading on Tuesday as the chain counts the costs of more closures brought on by the UK’s lockdown measures.
Instead, investors will be looking to the firm’s outlook as bars look set to reopen following the gradual relaxation of restrictions on April 12 and in mid-May.
The company has already said it plans to 20 bars this month, moving onto the whole 66-strong estate in May when indoor service will be allowed.
Revolution also said it expects “significant pent-up demand” when lockdown is lifted, as consumers desperate for a night out flood into its branches.
Tesco checks its receipts
Results from Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) will cover the 12 months to the end of February, which virtually coincides with the coronavirus pandemic period.
As an essential retailer, the supermarket giant’s shops have remained open throughout the period while its online offering has helped it gain market share for the first time since the advent of colour telly (or so it seems), as the German hard-discounters, Aldi and Lidl, have suffered for want of much of an online presence.
Despite that, profits aren’t going to be stellar for the full year, according to Sophie Lund-Yates at Hargreaves Lansdown.
“Analysts expect operating profit to fall around 37.5%. It’s important to focus on the longer-term picture. We’d like to know what expectations are for margins. As the group continues to ramp up investment, we wonder what that means for the operating margins (currently around 4.2%) Tesco worked so hard to rebuild,” Lund Yates said.
“One of the biggest threats for all the grocers is enormous competition. That means we’ll be looking closely for any commentary on trading in the run-up to Easter. Tesco put in a very strong performance over the Christmas period, and some analysts expected consumers to pull out all the stops for Easter this year. We wonder if Tesco was able to repeat that strength in the run-up to the latest round of celebrations,” she added.
Recruiters eye post-COVID jobs market
The week will also see trading updates from two recruitment firms, Robert Walters PLC (LON:RWA) and Hays PLC (LON:HAS), on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
Robert Walters has already reported better than expected results for 2020 despite the chaos inflicted on the job market by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, so the update will be eyed to see how 2021 has worked out for the group so far.
There will also be interest in how the picture looks for the year ahead as economies around the world begin to reopen as cases of the disease recede in numerous countries.
Meanwhile, Hay’s will be hoping that its second half is going better than its first, which saw net fee incomes drop by a quarter.
However, the firm has said it expects to resume dividends in its full-year results, so investors will be hoping this trajectory remains on track, as well as what the future holds for hiring in a post-COVID economy.
Deliveroo hops in with update
Hot on the heels of its underwhelming stock market flotation, Deliveroo Holdings PLC (LON:ROO) will announce its trading update for the first quarter of 2021, on Thursday.
Astonishing top-line growth is a given but the question is whether growth is accelerating and if so by how much?
The food delivery group has to make hay while the sun shines as restaurants will (hopefully) be reopening soon, which will siphon off some demand for Deliveroo’s services.
The controversial technology company was profitable for two quarters in a row in the second half of 2020 and likely was profitable in the first quarter but few are expecting that status to last for the rest of the year.
Analysts will be looking for guidance on full-year revenue growth and will be watching the group’s razor-thin margins to determine the direction of travel.
Hut, hut, HIKE?
On Thursday THG Group (LON:THG) has promised to report results for 2020 and give a first-quarter trading update.
In January the holding company of the digital retail giant Hut Group provided its third profit upgrade since listing in September.
The spark for this latest upgrade was the acquisition of US-based Dermstore.com in between Christmas and the New Year, coming after a strong festive showing and leading executive chair Matthew Moulding to hike his expectations for revenue growth in the new financial year to 30%-35%, from the 20%-25% guidance given in early December.
As well as being the company’s maiden full-year results as a listed company, with the extra attention this brings, the first quarter will also see if Moulding can continue his succession of guidance upgrades.
Interestingly, this series of hikes gave THG a market cap of above £8bn at the turn of the year – easily big enough for the company to gain promotion to the FTSE 100 if it wasn’t for THG being blocked from joining the blue-chip index as Moulding wanted a “golden share” in the company that gives him the power to reject hostile takeovers.
Naked Wines to reveal all in trading update
Delivering bottles of wine ordered online during lockdown? That’s surely a great business to be in right now and we’ll find out for sure on Thursday when Naked Wines Plc (LON:WINE) issues a full-year trading update.
The “problem” for Naked Wines will be matching market expectations as even the sleepiest trader will have spotted the potential for an acceleration in sales growth during lockdown, especially after the company’s half-year report in November, when it revealed an 80% year-on-year increase in revenues.
The online retailer raised its 'central case' growth assumptions to 55%-65% for the 12 months to the end of March, so that’s the number for it to beat.
Recovery key for Ashmore
Friday’s quarterly trading statement from Ashmore Group PLC (LON:ASHM), the specialist emerging markets asset manager, will focus on assets under management (AuM).
In the six months to the end of 2020, AuM increased 11% to US$93.0 billion, helped by significant market outperformance across fixed income and equities.
"Ashmore's performance in this period reflects the early stages of a typical recovery cycle, with strong investment performance driving AuM growth and delivering mark-to-market gains on the firm's seed capital investments. Given the recovery in average AuM and revenues naturally occurs with a lag, Ashmore has continued to focus on managing operating costs and has therefore maintained the group's operating profitability at a high level,” said Mark Coombs, the chief executive officer in the company’s half-year statement.
As such, the focus has likely remained on managing operating costs while making progress against the company’s strategic objectives of diversifying its investment capabilities and growing the scale of its local asset management platforms.
Macro matters
UK macroeconomic numbers to watch in the week ahead include the February GDP data on Tuesday and the British Retail Consortium UK retail sales figures on the same day.
With 2020 seeing UK GDP slump 9.8%, economists are optimistic that the UK will outperform its European counterparts this year in terms of growth, boosted by the government firing the gun on vaccine approvals earlier than their continental counterparts.
Arguably, another set of figures being released by the Office for National statistics has greater significance this week, says Danni Hewson, financial analyst at AJ Bell.
She’s eyeing trade data, which will also be released on Tuesday, after trade between the UK and EU fell significantly in the first month of this year, with exports to the EU down 40.7% and goods coming the other way sliding 30%.
“February’s figures will help determine if that decline was a blip or the start of a long-term shift,” Hewson said.
“Brexit most certainly has played a key part and a recent survey carried out by the Federation of Small businesses found that one in five exporters contacted had temporarily paused sales to the EU because of red tape.
“Teething troubles can only be blamed for so long and February’s figures will be weighed carefully. Of course, Brexit hasn’t been the only issue affecting trade, Covid has disrupted the global status quo and supply issues could play a major part in dampening post-pandemic recoveries.”
Coinbase listing looks to cash in on crypto boom
On the other side of the Atlantic, there will be high levels of interest in the direct listing of Coinbase, the cryptocurrency trading platform that is due to go public through a direct listing on the Nasdaq on Wednesday.
The company, which allows users to buy, sell, send and exchange cryptos including Bitcoin, was valued at around US$90bn in private share trading in early March, however, the ongoing boom in crypto trading could see its value surge when trading begins.
The company’s future as a publicly traded firm was also likely given a boost earlier this week when it reported that active users on its platform had surged to 6.1mln from 2.8mln in the fourth quarter of 2020, while verified users, those with Coinbase accounts, jumped to 56mln from 43mln.
Following the meteoric rise in the value of Bitcoin over 2020 and the first months of 2021, Coinbase’s flotation will be seen by many as a key litmus test of whether the crypto bull run is set to continue into the coming year.
Significant announcements expected for the week ending 16 April:
Monday April 12:
Finals: Belvoir Group PLC (LON:BLV), Concurrent Technologies PLC (LON:CNC), Elixirr International PLC (LON:ELIX), Instem PLC (LON:INS), Oxford Technology Venture Capital Trust PLC (LON:OXT)
Tuesday April 13:
Trading announcements: Plus500 Ltd (LON:PLUS), XP Power Ltd (LON:XPP), Electrocomponents PLC (LON:ECM)
Finals: JD Sports Fashion PLC (LON:JD.), Good Energy Group Plc (LON:GOOD), JTC PLC (LON:JTC), Next Fifteen Communications Group PLC (LON:NFC), Northbridge Industrial Services Plc (LON:NBI), Sourcebio International PLC (LON:SBI), SigmaRoc PLC (LON:SRC)
Interims: Revolution Bars Group PLC (LON:RBG)
Economic data: UK GDP, UK production, US inflation
Wednesday April 14:
Trading announcements: PageGroup PLC (LON:PAGE), Audioboom Group PLC (LON:BOOM), Robert Walters PLC (LON:RWA)
Finals: Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO), Destiny Pharma PLC (LON:DEST), The Mission Group PLC (LON:TMG)
Thursday April 15:
Trading announcements: Deliveroo Holdings PLC (LON:ROO); Hays PLC (LON:HAS), Naked Wines Plc (LON:WINE), Norcros PLC (LON:NXR), Travis Perkins PLC (LON:TPK)
Finals: THG PLC (LON:THG), Epwin Group PLC (LON:EPWN), Intelligent Ultrasound Group PLC (LON:IUG), Oxford Biomedica PLC (LON:OXB), Puretech Health PLC (LON:PRTC)
FTSE 100 ex-dividends to knock 5.8 points off the index: Legal & General Group PLC (LON:LGEN), Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY), Barratt Developments PLC (LON:BDEV), St James’s Place PLC (LON:STJ), Standard Life Aberdeen PLC (LON:SLA)
Economic data: US retail sales, US jobless claims
Friday April 16:
Trading announcements: Ashmore Group PLC (LON:ASHM), Kainos Group PLC (LON:KNOS), Mediclinic International Plc (LON:MDC)
Economic data: US Michigan consumer sentiment