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UK retailer selling clothing, home goods and premium food through stores and online, plus a stake in the Ocado UK retail joint venture.
UK retailer selling clothing, home goods and premium food through stores and online, plus a stake in the Ocado UK retail joint venture.
Food is now the larger business and brings frequent repeat shopping, while clothing and home sell more per visit but depend on fashion. It owns half of Ocado Retail, which sells M&S food online using Ocado's technology and delivery. It has closed stores and shifted the business toward food and online.
In one line: A UK department-store/grocer hybrid, like a combined Macy's and a premium Kroger.
Moat: narrow (brand, distribution). Strong heritage brand and food-quality reputation help, but general retail and grocery are highly competitive.
Headquarters: London, UK · Founded: 1884 · Employees: 64,442
Size Marks and Spencer (MKS.L) is a United Kingdom Consumer Discretionary company (Department Stores) with a market value of $12.1B, the 49th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £433.20 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 40.2%, against +10.0% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — highest of 12 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 21.1% over the last twelve months (peer median +2.2%); the operating margin is 4.8% (peer median 11.2%).
Valuation It trades at 13.1× forward earnings against a peer median of 16.5× (3rd cheapest of 11).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 7% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +14%, so the hurdle is -7 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.1 points above its cost of capital (9.9% WACC).
Credit Marks and Spencer has 1 bond outstanding ($400M), rated BBB- by the agencies and trading like BBB at a weighted spread of 108 bp.
Next results Next results expected around 26 May 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £18.5B | £17.3B | £13.8B | £13.0B | £11.9B |
| Revenue growth | — | +25% | +6% | +9% | — |
| Gross profit | n/a | £4.83B | £4.14B | £4.09B | £3.57B |
| EBITDA | £1.62B | £1.22B | £1.46B | £1.33B | £1.11B |
| Net income | £519M | £259M | £296M | £431M | £363M |
| Free cash flow | £1.02B | £589M | £798M | £809M | £516M |
| Capital expenditure | £946M | £627M | £507M | £429M | £410M |
| Total debt | n/a | £3.41B | £2.92B | £3.10B | £3.59B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marks and Spencer MKS.L | $12.1B | +40% | +21% | 5% | 13.1× | 6.5% |
| Next NXT.L | $23.8B | +24% | +13% | 19% | 18.8× | 12.5% |
| J Sainsbury SBRY.L | $10.4B | +16% | -3% | 3% | 14.9× | 7.8% |
| Tesco TSCO.L | $46.2B | +21% | +5% | 4% | 17.5× | 5.9% |
| H&M Hennes & Mauritz HM-B.ST | $29.1B | +12% | -4% | 9% | 22.3× | 4.5% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | MKS.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +9.4% | +1.6% | 3rd highest of 12 |
| 6-month return | +40.2% | +10.0% | highest of 12 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -4.3% | -19.3% | 3rd highest of 12 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +21.1% | +2.2% | highest of 12 |
| Operating margin | 4.8% | 11.2% | 3rd lowest of 12 |
| Forward P/E | 13.1× | 16.5× | 3rd cheapest of 11 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 6.5% | 2.4% | 3rd most demanding of 10 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +13.6% | +4.6% | highest of 10 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -7.0 pp | -1.0 pp | least demanding of 10 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +1.1 pp | -0.1 pp | 4th highest of 12 |
| EV / EBITDA | 7.1× | 10.6× | 2nd cheapest of 11 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.5× | 2.4× | 4th least indebted of 11 |
| Bond spread | 108 bp | n/a | — |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marks and Spencer MKS.L | United Kingdom | $12.1B | +40% | +21% | 5% | 13.1× | 6.5% | +13.6% |
| Dillard's DDS | United States | $9.41B | +7% | 0% | 11% | 17.4× | 1.6% | +8.2% |
| Canadian Tire CTC-A.TO | Canada | $7.57B | +7% | +1% | 9% | 14.1× | 1.9% | +1.9% |
| Isetan Mitsukoshi 3099.T | Japan | $7.16B | +14% | 0% | 15% | 17.5× | 7.4% | -7.7% |
| Tokyu 9005.T | Japan | $6.14B | -3% | +5% | 9% | 10.0× | n/a | n/a |
| Macy's M | United States | $6.03B | +18% | 0% | 4% | 10.8× | -1.1% | +4.6% |
| Ollie's Bargain Outlet OLLI | United States | $5.37B | +10% | +14% | 12% | 19.8× | 1.5% | +7.9% |
| J Front Retailing 3086.T | Japan | $4.46B | +24% | -3% | 11% | 22.1× | 5.9% | +6.9% |
| Takashimaya 8233.T | Japan | $3.98B | +14% | +2% | 11% | 15.6× | 2.4% | -6.3% |
| Harvey Norman HVN.AX | Australia | $3.84B | +2% | +5% | 18% | 13.8× | 4.7% | +0.8% |
| CCOOP 000564.SZ | China | $3.55B | -23% | +19% | -46% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Dollarama DOL.TO | Canada | $41.3B | +23% | +18% | 23% | 40.3× | 6.6% | +12.5% |
Marks and Spencer has 1 bond outstanding with $400M face value. The agencies rate it BBB-; its bonds trade like BBB. Weighted yield 5.95%, a spread of 108 bp over government bonds.