Ocado jumped to a new all-time high after a positive trading statement on Tuesday for the online retailer. The company said revenues had come in at £587.3m to the end of August, up by 52% on the year previous as a shift to online grocery shopping continues in the UK due to the virus lockdowns and other issues surrounding physical stores now.
Ocado also said that average order size continued to normalise from virus-related peaks to £141, but this was still higher than pre-crisis levels. The company also stated that customers had also responded well to the retailers tie-up with M&S. Weightings of M&S products in an average Ocado basket is said to be higher than Waitrose prior to the recent switch.
In a statement regarding the outlook for the year, the company cited uncertainties over the duration of social distancing measures as a threat but said, “the strong trading performance of Ocado Retail in the first three quarters of the year, combined with the impact of operational leverage in the retail business, suggest, given current trends, a full year EBITDA result for Ocado Group of at least £40m.”
The company will likely see further support from the push for further lockdowns with the North of England currently seeing increased restrictions and medical advisor Chris Witty suggesting a two-week U.K. lockdown to Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
OCDO has jumped to fresh all-time highs after a recent pullback to the 2300 area. Support now comes in at the previous highs of 2580 and the price could fall to the trendline support near 2200. If that price was broken then a technical projection would imply the 1800 level is possible.
