Wetherspoon shares offer further hope
Having added 40% since April and trading near a one-year high, independent analyst Alistair Strang is leaning toward optimism here.
16th July 2025 07:34
by Alistair Strang from Trends and Targets
The pub industry is a puzzle to us. Here in Argyll, the number of licensed premises has been decimated over the years. When we considered moving into our current home 10 years ago, we’d sampled the village pub, delighted with the service and food. The place was just a few hundred yards away, ticking the final box in our decision to buy. Of course, by the time we actually moved house, the village pub was shut and sporting a For Sale sign.
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The licensed trade, certainly here in Argyll, appears to be tough, though we note Wetherspoon (J D) (LSE:JDW) continues to complain about government damage to their industry, most recently adding plans to charge business rates by size of premises. However, it’s hard to take their complaints terribly seriously when they announce their intention to open six new Wetherspoons branches in 2025, taking their outlet count to around 857.
Recent price movements with Wetherspoon are looking a little ambiguous as traffic below 750p threatens reversal down to an initial 730p and hopefully a bounce.
The danger comes if the share price closes below 730p, ticking a box which allows longer-term reversal to 662p. Our suspicion is any reversal to 730p shall be more an attempt to slow the price down, rather than a real reflection of price movements.
Alternately, it’s now the case where above 794p should trigger growth to an initial 825p with our secondary, if beaten, at a longer-term 928p.
Our inclination is to lean toward optimism here.
Source: Trends and Targets. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Alistair Strang has led high-profile and "top secret" software projects since the late 1970s and won the original John Logie Baird Award for inventors and innovators. After the financial crash, he wanted to know "how it worked" with a view to mimicking existing trading formulas and predicting what was coming next. His results speak for themselves as he continually refines the methodology.
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