Marks and Spencer (M&S) announces full year results tomorrow (21 May) under a cloud of pessimism following the cyber attack that has crippled the retail giant over recent weeks.
One of the most popular stocks in the UK, M&S (LON:MKS) is also a household name among the FTSE 100. But, it is in a challenging position.
M&S shares have fallen over 10% over the past month, as the cyber attack – which first started impacting services over the Easter weekend – brought its services to a standstill.
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“All eyes will be on Marks and Spencer’s update given the cyber attack, which has caused chaos at the company,” says Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown.
As of 20 May, M&S is still not taking online orders. Bank of America estimates that M&S has lost £40 million in sales every week since the attack began.
Despite the cyber attack, M&S shares are only down 1.9% so far this year. M&S’ share price gained 2.1% in the five days running up to its results date (as of c. 3pm on 20 May), and shareholders will hope that the company can provide a degree of reassurance when it announces its results.
M&S results: what to expect
The financial results are “likely to be overshadowed by the cyber attack that M&S is under,” wrote Jonathan Pritchard, retail analyst at Peel Hunt, in a research note seen by MoneyWeek.
“Absent the cyber attack, we would have been of the view that a strong FY25 print would have been accompanied by… news of a strong April and May so far,” Pritchard added.
Tomorrow’s M&S results cover the year to March. As such, they predate the attack, but the underlying financial health of the business will be under even more scrutiny than ever.
Analysts polled by London Stock Exchange Group expect M&S results to show earnings per share of £28.99 on revenue of £13.76 billion.
Given the spectre of the cyber attack, though, the forward guidance could have more influence on M&S’ share price movements following the announcement than the financial results themselves.
“Some guidance for the year is expected, and it’s likely to be very cautious indeed,” says Streeter.
“M&S will be insured, and we understand that the situation is becoming more manageable,” says Pritchard, “but it is likely to be weeks before M&S is anywhere near back to normal and FY26 is therefore pretty much a write-off.
“Whilst we do not see any impact on the long-term love that the average customer has for M&S, it may be that the runes for FY27 are for less growth than initially thought.”
Will M&S provide an update on the cyber attack in its results?
M&S has so far been relatively tight-lipped about the cyber attack and its fallout. Many observers are hoping that the company will provide a fuller update on the attack and its implications with the financial results release.
"I would expect a fuller update from Marks and Spencer during its annual report announcement, especially given it will have been more than a week since the last update," says Streeter.
At that update, M&S confirmed that customer data had been stolen.
"Investors will also be very keen to hear about any timeline for operations to resume," adds Streeter.
The BBC reported on 17 May that Dragonforce, the hacker group behind the M&S cyber attack, is believed to have gained entry to its systems via a third party. M&S told the BBC that “our stores have remained open and availability is now in a much more normal place with stores well stocked this weekend”.
Compromised information could include customers' name, date of birth, telephone number, home address, household information, email address and online order history.
Any payment card information accessed will not be usable, as M&S does not store full card information.
Anyone with an M&S account is advised to change their password as soon as possible, and to make this password different to those used in any other site.
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