London, Jan 9, 2026, 11:25 GMT — Regular session
Marks & Spencer Group plc (MKS.L) shares rose 2.4% to 353.2 pence by 1110 GMT on Friday. 1
Berenberg upgraded the stock to “buy” from “hold” and nudged its target price up to 415 pence, saying the pullback late last year left the forward price-to-earnings multiple — the share price relative to expected earnings — looking more attractive. 2
That comes as investors sift a choppy Christmas read-out for UK retailers, where food held up but clothing and gift spending looked patchier, and executives kept pointing to a wary consumer heading into 2026. 3
M&S said underlying food sales rose 6.6% in the 13 weeks to Dec. 27, with like-for-like growth of 5.6%, while its Fashion, Home & Beauty division posted a 2.9% like-for-like fall. Like-for-like strips out the effect of store openings and closures to show underlying demand. 4
Chief executive Stuart Machin said the business saw a record number of customers over the period and that Fashion, Home & Beauty was “getting back on track” as online sales returned to growth. AJ Bell’s head of markets Dan Coatsworth said the update looked like a familiar trade-off where “strong food sales offset weak clothing”, and he pointed to a bigger-than-usual Sale to clear stock. 5
The shares had already jumped about 5% on Thursday after the trading statement, bucking a slide in UK retail names that hit peers including Tesco, Greggs and Primark owner Associated British Foods. 6
Full-year guidance was unchanged, and Hargreaves Lansdown said that implies underlying pre-tax profit of around 650 million pounds for the year ending in March. 7
But the clothing recovery is still a swing factor. If footfall stays thin or discounting bites harder than planned, margins could take a hit even if food keeps doing the heavy lifting.
Investors are also watching whether M&S meets its aim of being fully recovered from the April cyber attack by March 2026, a milestone management has linked to a second-half profit rebound. 8
