H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB: Trading dull and gross margin tailwinds fading

Research evidence excerpt

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB: Trading dull and gross margin tailwinds fading

Equity Research

European General Retail

25 June 2026

H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB

Trading dull and gross margin

tailwinds fading

2Q: sales in-line, gross margin a touch-ahead, EBIT ex one- HMb.ST/HMB SS UNDERWEIGHT

offs a touch ahead. June trading flat, within which H&M European General Retail NEUTRAL

Brand slowing. Gross margin tailwinds fading into 2H. Expect Price Target SEK 150.00

Price (24-Jun-26) SEK 168.70

some share price weakness. Potential Upside/Downside -11.1%

Source: Bloomberg, Barclays Research

H&M has reported 2Q26 results covering March to May. Local currency growth of -1% is in line

(with H&M Brand getting better, portfolio brands worse). Gross margin expansion of +1.2pts a European General Retail

touch ahead. EBIT of SEK 6.6bn (excluding a SEK 0.7bn one-off restructuing cost) is c. 3% ahead Matthew Clements

of cons. Further down in the release, H&M talks about an additional SEK 0.6bn 'provision for +44 (0)20 7773 6018

transition costs' that impacted EBIT, but this is not stripped in its 'operating profit excl. one-time matthew.clements@barclays.com

Barclays, UKcosts' on the front page - we will look for clarification on the call.

Imogen Doyle

Sales growth flat in June (we had looked for +1%), within which portfolio brands positive vs -7% +44 (0)20 7773 2605

in 2Q (i.e. H&M Brand slowing into June). We had expected a c. +1pt benefit from calendar but imogen.doyle@barclays.com

no comment in the release on this. Gross margin outlook seems muted with external factors Barclays, UK

expected to be neutral (vs somewhat positive in 2Q), starting to lap benefits of supply chain

work (though still some improvements to come), and markdown costs expected to be flat YoY.