Proactive Investors - Ocado Group PLC (LON:OCDO) investors will likely be hoping for a sense of calm in next Tuesday, 26 March’s results, after a recent dramatic showdown with M&S over the duo’s joint venture.
This had seen the grocery delivery firm threaten to sue M&S, after the latter said payments relating to their joint venture Ocado.com would not be made due to it missing financial targets.
Indeed, the venture has faced “the wrong type of publicity recently,” Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV) analyst Sophie Lund-Yates said, “thanks to [the] public spat between the two companies”.
“For now, nothing has officially changed about the relationship. With that in mind, investors will be looking out for business as usual in next week’s retail trading update,” she said.
This follows a 7% rise in revenue last year, owing to higher prices offsetting a reduction in volumes.
“With grocery inflation tempering, investors will be interested to see how performance has developed,” Lund-Yates said.
“There will also be a keen eye on active customer numbers,” she added.
“These were up almost 6% last year and are an important barometer for future demand.”