J Sainsbury PLC Reveals Sales Up 5%

J Sainsbury PLC (LON: SBRY) claims to be the only major supermarket increasing its market share.

Maynard Paton

Maynard has worked at the Fool since 1999. He ran the Qualiport online portfolio on the Fool from November 1999 to September 2005 and was lead adviser for the Champion Shares & Champion Shares PRO stock-picking services from September 2005 to June 2011, at which point he moved to become Deputy Editor of the UK Fool. Prior to joining the Fool, Maynard worked for a year as a Poll Tax clerk and then for six years at the local authority's IT department in the murky world of ICL mainframes and COBOL programming. He relocated to Kent to join a financial services firm's IT department and there discovered the joys of stock market investing. As well as keeping an eye on share prices and his local housing market, Maynard's interests include karting, martial arts and entertaining his young family.

Published 2 October, 2013 9:12 am BST

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The shares of J Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY) (NASDAQOTH: JSAIY.US) slid 9p to 381p during early trade this morning after the supermarket revealed its total sales had improved by 5% during the 16 weeks to 28 September.

The FTSE 100 member said sales on an underlying basis during the same period had advanced by 2.1%, which was an improvement on the 0.7% like-for-like performance recorded during the prior three months.

Sainsbury’s confirmed its first half had seen total sales gain 4.4%, or 4.0% excluding fuel.

Justin King, the chief executive of Sainsbury’s, claimed:

“We have delivered strong sales over the quarter, continuing to outperform the market in what remains a tough retail environment. We are the only major supermarket to be growing market share.“

Mr King revealed the group’s own-label products had continued to grow at over twice the rate of branded goods.

He also revealed Sainsbury’s online business grew by over 15% in the second quarter and was now enjoying annual sales of more than £1bn.

Prior to today, City brokers had been expecting Sainsbury’s to report current-year earnings up 4% to 31.8p per share and lift its annual dividend by 5% to 17.6p.

Based on those estimates, Sainsbury’s shares may trade at 12 times possible profits and offer a 4.6% potential income.