Cold weather helps to boost Domino’s January 6, 2010 DOMINO’S PIZZA said yesterday people staying in because of the cold weather helped its sales beat City forecasts. The fast food delivery chain, which has 608 stores in the UK and Ireland, said in a fourth quarter trading update like-for-like sales rose 8.6 per cent in the 13 weeks to 27 December, despite the downturn [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS May 27, 2010 SIGNET JEWELERS Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Equity Research has downgraded its rating on Signet Jewelers from “strong buy” to “hold” and said the jeweler continues to shine but there are few short-term catalysts. S&P said that for the shares to move higher, new store roll-outs or a resumption of shareholder payouts would be needed. DOMINO’S [...]
Domino’s Pizza ramps up share buyback plans November 16, 2009 Domino’s Pizza yesterday said it would return £19m to shareholders by buying back 6m shares at 317p and issued another upbeat trading statement reporting it was on track to beat market expectations for the full year. Since June 2004, the take-away fast food chain has returned approximately £31.7m of cash to shareholders through the purchase [...]
Mid-sized UK firms poised to create profits May 9, 2010 WHO would have thought that the FTSE 250 – often considered a better reflection of the UK economy than the FTSE 100 – would have outperformed the larger index? Even after the swings in the financial markets at the end of last week, the mid-cap 250 index is currently 5 per cent higher than it [...]
A SUITABLY SPIRITED SENDOFF TO SIR STUART July 14, 2010 WE’LL begin by heading over to the Royal Festival Hall for Marks and Sparks’ annual general meeting, where the usual fun and games were to be had. Hundreds of ageing M&S veterans queued up for the speeches, stage antics and free food and drink, armed with piercing questions for Sir Stuart Rose and his successor, [...]
Big oil will live on, but faces a harder future June 2, 2010 AS BP steps up its efforts to stem the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the speculation surrounding the costs associated with the clean-up continues to increase. BP estimates that the cost will be roughly $4bn, while some analysts predict that the clean-up, along with related lawsuits, could be as high as $10bn. While [...]
BANK OF ENGLAND BOFFIN KNOCKS THE SPOTS OFF THE COMPETITION March 31, 2010 WHEN it comes to pepping up weighty speeches with witty references to popular culture, the boffins from the Bank of England aren’t exactly known for being trailblazers. But Andrew Haldane, the Bank’s executive director for financial stability, tore his peers’ stuffy image to shreds in a speech in Hong Kong this week by managing to [...]
How to have the perfect World Cup at home June 2, 2010 1 Slingbox Pro With World Cup viewing forecast to cost businesses £11.6m this year as matches collide with the working day, make sure you can skive with the best of them. The Slingbox Pro enables you to channel your TV through the internet to your computer or mobile device, wherever you are. Simply set up [...]
FIRST GREECE, NOW SPAIN, WHO NEXT? April 28, 2010 EUROPEAN markets were yesterday left quaking after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Spain’s sovereign credit rating, the third debt-stricken eurozone nation to receive such treatment in just 48 hours. Fears of contagion spreading to other European countries catapulted the EU into action, with one politician letting slip that a revised bailout package for Greece could be [...]
The Tipster March 29, 2010 CONFECTIONER Thorntons is looking forward to the Easter weekend. After a couple of years of austerity amongst consumers, general sentiment does seem to be improving and Thorntons will be hoping for a bumper Easter season. The share price has enjoyed a bounce in recent weeks, but the consensus is that there’s still more sweetness to [...]