ANALYST VIEWS: HOW HAS MORRISONS FARED COMPARED TO ITS RIVALS?
CLIVE BLACK | SHORE CAPITAL
Morrison’s provides the market with the first official indication of supermarket trading momentum since Tesco UK introduced its ‘Big Price Drop’. Total sales from the Bradford based group…seem to have weathered the price cutting storm reasonably well with ex-fuel, ex-VAT sales up by 4.6 per cent.
DAVE MCCARTHY | EVOLUTION SECURITIES
Trading was robust at Morrisons, remaining ahead of its key rivals…The operational gearing benefit of like-for-like sales running ahead of budget and forecast, plus the sizeable self help programme, gives Morrisons extra resources to cope with an environment that we expect to deteriorate further in 2012.
GEORGE O’CONNOR | PANMURE GORDON
Morrison’s third quarter sales show its resilience and good price positioning. It should be able to generate faster top line growth than Sainsbury for the foreseeable future and this in turn should lead to higher dividend growth. However, we think that this growth is less certain than Sainsbury’s, especially as it appears to want to make acquisitions, which is why we have a Hold recommendation.