Consecutive Quarters and Consensus Forecast

management comments: They were at least a shade better than the City consensus forecast, but perhaps just as significant were management comments on sales volumes, according to The Independent. They’ve been rising across the group for two consecutive quarters. While sales might have been down at the headline level, that is more or less to be expected at a time of still quite sharp price deflation, requiring grocers to run ever faster just to stand still. At the like-for-like level – in other words, excluding the contribution made by new stores – I was told that they are more or less flat. There are various other metrics running in Sainsbury favour too, and the break-neck growth of discounters Aldi and Lidl has shown signs of moderating of late. But even that is an improvement on what has been the norm for the past couple of years. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.