As HMV outlines its strategy to hit £10m this year profit against a £16.2m pre-tax loss in its year to April 28, Retail Week rounds up analyst viewpoints on the retailer’s future.

We continue to see HMV as a value trap with potentially insurmountable structural issues, despite the arrival of a new chief executive Trevor Moore and financial director Ian Kenyon in Spetember.

We suspect the profit benefit from Game will be short-lived as HMV saw no sustainable benefit when Zavvi went into administration in December 2008. We remain concerned about the level of debt within the business and continue to believe there will be no let up in the structural pressures in the business from online or the supermarkets - Seymour Pierce, Kate Calvert

HMV is not out of the woods yet but the sale of HMV Apollo, the changed trading relationship with its suppliers, the prospective sale of Live and the renegotiation of its bank debt have out it in a position where they company have stabilised cash flow and a return to profits is predicted by management.

It plans to replace lost sales with growth in technology products. HMV will be running up the down escalator and there must be some doubt as to whether the strategy will work – Panmure Gordon, Philip Dorgan

While the markets have responded positively to the latest results, HMV is still operating in declining markets while having to service a debt heavy position.

So far it has bought itself some breathing space through the sales of Waterstones and HMV Canada in 2011, and this year it has sold Hammersmith Apollo, but this is not a long term solution.

While it has improved its relationships with its music and video suppliers, at the same time it is increasing its emphasis on its technology and gaming offerings, which could prove a difficult balancing act – Verdict, Matthew Rubin

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