Shore Capital Sees M&S Shares Potentially Doubling as Investment Thesis Progresses

Shore Capital said it sees a path for Marks & Spencer’s (LON: MKS) share price to double over the medium-to-longer term, following a meeting with Chair Archie Norman.

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Analysts Clive Black and Darren Shirley said the meeting served as “a helpful sense check to the ongoing M&S journey,” noting the firm has improved significantly since Norman joined as Chair in 2017 but that “there is clearly a long way to go.”

The firm noted that UK growth, centred on substantial infrastructure investment, should underpin ongoing EPS progress and could eventually bring capital returns to the fore, “not least rating expansion.”

The analysts outlined M&S’s growth priorities, including doubling food market sales from a 2022 base of £6.8 billion, having already reached £9.1 billion in fiscal 2025, developing a fit-for-purpose full-line store estate, and doubling online apparel sales from a fiscal 2022 base of £1.1 billion.

Shore Capital believes M&S is likely to prioritise growth over capital distribution in the short-to-medium term, with special distributions and buybacks more likely from calendar year 2028 onwards as the balance sheet strengthens.

Shore Capital can foresee “a progression in the medium-term, towards c.50p of EPS,” which alongside a stronger balance sheet and infrastructure progress “means to us notable rating expansion,” with a price-to-earnings ratio of around 15 times seen as achievable.

The firm concluded that the medium-to-longer term journey “could see a doubling of the Group’s share price.”