Ocado shares sank to an all-time low this week after a downgrade from joint house broker Goldman Sachs sparked a sell-off.

Shares bottomed out on Tuesday at 116p from a high of 152p a week earlier, beating a previous low of 125p last October. The catalyst was the decision from Goldman to cut its six-month share price target from 297p to 225p. It said its new estimates reflected “continued capacity ­constraints”.

Ocado also blamed supply problems when its half-year sales growth of 20.8% came in below expectations in June. One ­analyst complained ‘capacity constraints’ were now the only two words to come from the company.

So far, little explanation has been offered but some analysts suggested expanding its highly automated central warehouse in Hatfield was proving problematic.

Other analysts were anxious about the long-time lag between the last Ocado trading update and the Goldman downgrade and the fact no date has been set for the publication of third-quarter results. They feared Waitrose’s launch of an online service in London on 1 July may have hit Ocado.

Analysts dismissed speculation that Ocado could run out of cash.

Topics