JD Sports Share Price
The JD Sports share price is heading up the FTSE 100 on Friday on a week that has seen the sportswear brand spend five consecutive days in the green. Including its 3.23% gains on Friday, at the time of writing, the JD Sports share price, at 942.03p, is up by 15.67% since the beginning of the year. The clothing company has now well surpassed its pre-pandemic peak of 878.8p. As lockdown restrictions continue to ease, investors could look towards JD Sports, as it will look to capitalise on increased footfall. However, despite being in a strong financial decision, aa furore over bonus payments could derail the JD Sports share price.
Performance
Going back to before the pandemic, JD Sports was performing consistently well. The sportswear company managed to increase its revenues by 29.5% by the end of 2020, compared to thee previous year.
JD Sports increased its sales by 1% during thee pandemic. However, when taking into account the fact its physical stores were closed for large parts of the year, this can be considered an impressive signal of its ability to make online sales.
JD Sport’s net debt is at £700m, however ended the last financial year with £964 million in cash holdings. The company had a net debt/EBITDA ratio of 0.9, in addition to LT-debt-to-assets ratio of 32.7%.
Investor Revolt over Bonuses
Despite the company’s balance sheet looking pretty healthy, some worrying news emerged last week for investors. The possibility of a revolt by major investors has emerged as hefty bonuses were paid out despite the company to repaying the government Covid related support.
Sky News reported last week that the Investment Association’s influential IVIS service has ‘red-topped’ JD Sports over votes on bonus payments and its future remuneration policy.
The alert adds IVIS to recommendations from other proxy advisers, one being Glass Lewis, which have told investors they should oppose the board of JD Sports.
Having seen his base salary reduced during the initial stage of the pandemic, executive chairman Peter Cowgill, received a £5m pay package last year.
The leading sportswear brand also received more than £60m from the furlough scheme and £38m in business rates relief. JD Sports refused to pay the sums back, despite other major retailers doing so.
JD Sports will be holding its annual meeting on the first day of July when investors could get aa response to this issue as well as a better understanding of the company’s outlook for the future.