Thursday preview: All eyes on Argos turnaround at Home Retail in Q1

12th Jun 2013 15:44

Home Retail, the owner of the Argos and Homebase chains, on Thursday is to update investors on how it has been trading in its fiscal first quarter.The company saw shares fall sharply at the start of May after disappointing with a 10% decline in underlying profit before tax to £91m in the year to March 2nd on the back of flat sales of £5.47bn.The outlook statement in the company's full-year results cautioned that conditions this year would be similar to that seen in 2012/13 with "consumer spending continuing to be impacted by ongoing inflationary pressures and low levels of consumer confidence".Nevertheless, while Homebase struggled with poor weather conditions, the group hailed the performance of Argos which delivered its first year of like-for-like sales growth in five years. General-goods retailer Argos had struggled in recent years due its catalogue-shopping nature, but a transformation plan currently underway is aimed at "reinventing" the brand as a "digital retail leader", Home Retail said.Following the results last month, Panmure Gordon reiterated its 'sell' rating on the stock, saying that the Argos turnaround will take "too long" and that Homebase is in danger of slipping into losses."Overall, we think that there is too much for Argos to do, digital disruption will change everything in the next five years and that the competition is too fierce and nimble," said Panmure analysts. The broker added that it doesn't expect Argos to achieve its targets for sales of £4.5bn by 2018, compared with £3.9bn in the year just gone.Thursday June 13 INTERIMS CareTech Holding, Redhall Group INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE Aberdeen Asset Management INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS Business Inventories (US) (13:30) ECB Report (EU) (09:00) Import and Export Price Indexes (US) (13:30) Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30) Manufacturing Inventories (US) (15:00) Retail Sales (US) (13:45) Retail Sales Inventories (US) (15:15) FINALS Halma, Minco, Wincanton ANNUAL REPORT Gold Oil, SSE IMSS Home Retail Group SPECIAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE 888 Holdings, Antofagasta AGMS BH Credit Catalysts Ltd Ord Red Shs NPV USD, Charlemagne Capital Ltd., EMED Mining Public Ltd., Evraz, Graphite Enterprise Trust, Huntsworth, Kingfisher, Lansdowne Oil & Gas, Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets, OAO Severstal GDR (Reg S), Public Power GDR SA (Reg S), Witan Pacific Inv Trust TRADING ANNOUNCEMENTS PZ Cussons FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE 888 Holdings, Alent, Antofagasta, Netplay TV