Hennes & Mauritz: Q2 26 results first take - mixed, beat on EBIT driven by opex, but top line still very disappointing

Research evidence excerpt

Hennes & Mauritz: Q2 26 results first take - mixed, beat on EBIT driven by opex, but top line still very disappointing

J P M O R G A N Europe Equity Research

25 June 2026

Hennes & Mauritz Underweight

HMb.ST, HMB SS

Q2 26 results first take - mixed, beat on EBIT driven by Price (24 Jun 26):Skr168.70

opex, but top line still very disappointing Price Target (Nov-27):Skr114.00

Our Take: This is a mixed update from H&M. On one hand EBIT is a 4-13% beat European General Retail

ACdepending on the magntidue of one-off costs that are excluded from the result - Georgina Johanan, ACA

banking this beat would imply a 1-4% upgrade to FY 26 forecasts. However, top (44-20) 7134-5791

line is still disappointing at down -1% in the quarter and only flat in Jun (we think georgina.s.johanan@jpmorgan.com

in-line or slightly below investor expectations which had drifted higher due to the J.P. Morgan Securities plc

heatwave). The beat could support an initial move higher in the stock, but we would Fiyin Durojaiye

be selling into any strength given the still soft top line, and gross margin comments (44-20) 3493-0455

fiyin.durojaiye@jpmorgan.com

no better than expectations overall. On read across, with sales only flat in Jun this J.P. Morgan Securities plc

suggests that the European market backdrop might not be as supported by the

Shailja Maskara

recent heatwave as the rhetoric suggests. Indeed we wonder if it is more beneficial (91-22) 6157-3318

for the online channel. This would be unhelpful for Primark (ABF) if this was the shailja.maskara@jpmchase.com

case, but more beneficial for Zalando and Next. J.P. Morgan India Private Limited

• Noteworthy Areas: Q2 26 results. Sales were -1% yoy ex-FX (see table on Specialist Sales contact details:

p5 of the release).