Not a buy at just yet!

Woolworths is a South African retailer that has struggled over the last few years starting with a purchase of the Australian retailer David Jones which took place in 2014 at a large premium to its intrinsic value. Woolies has since had to write down the value of its David Jones holding by around 60%. Ouch!

The company's current CEO appears to have a viable turn around strategy with a focus to improving their online sales. The question is, how effectively can they grow their earnings going forward?

The company has taken on a fair amount of debt compared to its historical debt levels, however, most of their debt is structured over a long period of time. This gives them time to improve their free cash flow over the next 3 -5 years. Their average annual free cash flow over recent years is around 4.5% - 5%, which isn't where share holder would want it to be.
The worrisome aspect for me is the fact that their effective interest on debt is around 8.5% per annum. To me that draws a line in the sand to say that they need to grow their earnings by at least 10% per annum.

Which could be possible under a favorable economic environment and a successfully implemented turn around strategy.

For the time being i wouldn't have the conviction to take a meaningful stake in the company.

Trading signal
For the time being the signals on the weekly chart suggest that the price may need to retrace further which could complete a head and shoulder pattern which i have shown on the chart. We should have confirmation on this in the next 1.5 - 2 months.

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