Sunday share tips: Majestic Wine, Domino's Pizza
By Digital Look
Date: Sunday 12 Aug 2018
(Sharecast News) - Sunday newspaper share tips from the Sunday Times on Majestic Wine and the Mail on Sunday on Domino's Pizza.
Majestic Wine shares are worth avoiding, the Sunday Times' Inside the City column recommended. Just over three years ago the company bought loss-making online outfit Naked Wines for £70m and the shares have made only a little ground since. Some recent gains have come from analysts at broker Panmure Gordon speculated last year that the company could be broken up, though the suggested buyer was wholesaler Conviviality, which has since collapsed.
Majestic's full year results in June showed adjusted underlying annual profits up 63% to £17.2m, debt slashed and a dividend up 42%. While retail sales were soft, the Naked Wines business grew revenues 11.3% and turned a profit. Naked Wines boss Rowan Gormley, who is now CEO of the wider group, wants to replicate the Naked formula throughout the group, investing in a voucher scheme and tie-ups with partners such as retailer Hotel Chocolat and Barclays.
The column was sceptical that the Naked Wines model is infinitely scalable or translates to the high street. "Naked Wines is as much a membership club as a retailer", with customers paying £20 a month to get preferential access to wines from independent vineyards at cheaper prices. "I struggle to see this trick being replicated on the high street, where consumers are fickle and the lure of cheap supermarket booze is omnipresent."
Midas in the Mail on Sunday said current investors in Domino's Pizza should hold but new investors may want to wait and see until the next trading update. An update last week saw a 5.9% increase in like-for-like sales in the UK and Ireland for the first half of the year, with operating profit up 8.1% to £48.2m. Domino's insists that it is on track to meet full year forecasts, but concerns have been raised about its operations in Switzerland and Sweden and led to a loss from the overseas arm. Group debt has tripled to £182.1m as expansion efforts continue.
Domino's had expected to open 80 new stores in 2018, but has cut that estimate to 60 after just 22 were opened in the first half of the year. The shares fell 10% from 320p on the update, though by the end of the week they had recovered slightly to 297p. Broker Liberum has a 'sell' rating on the stock, believing the rate of new store openings will slow and is concerned about rising costs.
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