Thursday preview: Morrison expected to report drop in annual profit amid supermarket price war

11th Mar 2015 14:49

WM Morrison Supermarkets is forecast to report its worst annual profit figure in eight years on Thursday amid a price war in the sector.The group has said it expects 2014 pre-tax profit before one off items of £335m to £365m while analysts predict £342m, down from the previous year's £785m.The UK's biggest four supermarkets including Morrison, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have been slashing prices to claw back market share from discounters including Aldi and Lidl.Kantar Worldpanel's latest data on Tuesday showed Morrison suffering a 0.4% decline in sales, growing slower than the market.JPMorgan said it estimates Morrison will cut the 2015 fiscal year dividend by 50%. However, the broker upgraded the supermarket to 'neutral' from 'underweight', saying that it believed the new management team, improved trading, greater cost cutting opportunities, and less demanding valuation versus other UK grocers may limit the share price to the downside in coming months."We believe the new management team has the opportunity to develop a more consistent strategy than the one seen under previous management, to which we would attribute a number of strategic missteps (positioning the company excessively up-market, buying Kiddicare, some aspects of the Ocado deal etc)," JPMorgan said."We have reasons to believe that the new CEO (to join in March) may be well aligned with Chairman and CFO (all ex Tesco), which should facilitate the implementation of the strategy."Morrison last week named former Tesco executive David Potts as its new chief executive to succeed Dalton Philips, who was ousted in January after failing to turn around the business. The management team also includes new chairman Andrew Higginson, who will present the annual results.At 12:45 Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will deliver a speech at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Sheffield. It will be followed by a Q&A session.Thursday 12 MarchINTERIMSEagle Eye Solutions GroupINTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEPenna ConsultingINTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATEBHP Billiton, Clinigen Group, Dechra Pharmaceuticals, Dunelm Group, ECO Animal Health Group, Foresight 3 VCT, Hargreaves Lansdown, Haynes Publishing Group, Management Resources Solutions , River and Mercantile Group , Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust, Stewart & Wight, Wilmington GroupQUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATEBlackRock Income Strategies Trust , Land Securities Group, XP Power Ltd. (DI)INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBusiness Inventories (US) (14:00)Consumer Price Index (GER) (07:00)Continuing Claims (US) (12:30)Import and Export Price Indexes (US) (12:30)Industrial Production (EU) (10:00)Initial Jobless Claims (US) (12:30)Manufacturing Inventories (US) (14:00)Retail Sales (US) (12:30)Retail Sales Inventories (US) (14:00)FINALSBankers Petroleum Ltd.(CDI), Cambridge Cognition Holdings, Cineworld Group, Computacenter, Lenta Ltd GDR (Each 5 Repr 1 Ord) (144A) , LSL Property Services, Medaphor Group, Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets, Portmeirion Group, SIG, Soco International, Stilo International, Stock Spirits Group , TT ElectronicsANNUAL REPORTCRH, Heavitree Brewery, HuntingIMSSNorthgateSPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATEDirect Line Insurance Group, Rensburg AIM VCT, River and Mercantile GroupAGMSBanco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SATRADING ANNOUNCEMENTSASOS, Home Retail GroupUK ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTSBalance of Trade (09:30)RICS Housing Market Survey (09:30)FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATEAvesco Group, British Polythene Industries, Crest Nicholson Holdings, Direct Line Insurance Group, FBD Holdings, Hammerson, Keller Group, LPA Group, Mithras Inv Trust, MTI Wireless Edge Ltd., Paddy Power, Randgold Resources Ltd., RM, Safestore Holdings, Standard Chartered, Temple Bar Inv Trust, W H Ireland Group