Shares in Sports Direct International - Mike Ashley's other business interest apart from Newcastle United - are being supported by positive results from adidas.
Sports Direct is up 2.1p to 280.8p, and the adidas update has prompted a buy note for Ashley's retailer from Jonathan Prichard at Oriel Securities. He said:
In its fourth quarter, adidas' sales grew by 13% in western Europe: that's an excellent effort in these becalmed times for retail. It appears that whilst adidas will clearly be winning market share, the build up to Euro 12 and the Olympics is going well and adidas is clear that its investment focus will be these two tournaments.
Last time we heard from Sports Direct, like for like was around 7% and we see no reason why that would have ebbed away of late.
The shares have shown some weakness in recent days but this could offer an opportunity. The PE is just over 11 times and momentum in sales and forecasts is strong. We continue to place Sports Direct at the top of our buy list.
