The share price of  NEXT plc (LSE: NXT) — the high street and online fashion and homewares retailer —  is currently up over 5%, following release of an interim management statement for the third quarter to 26 October 2013.
Despite what the company describes as “volatile trading” throughout the period, it has reported that its Next Brand sales were up +4.3%, which is just above the second half guidance range of +1% to +4% previously advised.
With three quarters of the year now gone , Next has issued revised guidance for the full year. It now expects brand sales growth of between 2% and 3.75%, with an increase in pre-tax group profit of between 4.6% and 9.4%.  It also forecasts that earnings per share (EPS) will grow by between 15% and 21%.  The EPS growth has benefitted from share buybacks of £295m, and the company has said that it may buy up to £50m more before the end of the full year.
Next’s share price is 5,495p at the time of writing — that’s up almost 50% so far in 2013, and an impressive 534% over the past five years.
