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.
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. Sharecast
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.
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.
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. Reuters
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.
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.
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.
