Post-Christmas Retail Review: The Good, the Average and the Ugly

We’ve now had a chance to look at trading updates from all the major UK retailers after the peak Christmas trading season.
In this article, I’m going to quickly review them, even those which aren’t particularly seasonal, and hopefully put them into categories!
(Disclosure: at the time of publication, I have long positions in NXT and BRBY; my co-writers Roland and Mark may have positions in other shares mentioned.)

The Good
Next (LON:NXT) (Disclosure: I’m long NXT.)
Reporting date: 6th January.Sector: clothing, footwear, home productsFull-price sales +10.6%Ahead of expectationsOur view: This was a typical Next update: clear, transparent, timely and ahead of expectations. Nothing to dislike. We stayed AMBER/GREEN.
Tesco (LON:TSCO)
Reporting date: 8th JanuarySector: groceries and general merchandiseLike-for-like Christmas sales +2.4%Full-year adj. operating profit at upper end of guidance.
Our view: The market didn’t like this “ahead” update, marking the shares down by 6% on the day, as investors apparently expected even better from this retail giant. With the company having arguably superior economics against its competitors, we stayed AMBER/GREEN.
Currys (LON:CURY)