JD Sports Shares Rise as Guidance Holds Despite Sales Slump

JD Sports Fashion (LON: JD.), the sportswear and trainers retailer, rose about 2.2% in early trade on the FTSE 100 after half-year results confirmed the sales slump it warned of last month. The shares had slumped 11% to 14% on August’s profit warning and were down around 20% over the prior year before today’s move.

Half-year results showed organic sales down 0.7% and like-for-like sales down 2.8%, in line with the profit warning issued at August’s second-quarter trading update. Profit before tax and adjusting items, the group’s preferred underlying profit measure, fell 19.7% to £282m from £351m a year earlier. North America, JD’s largest region at 38% of sales, was the weakest spot, with like-for-like sales down 4.0% as soft demand for high-heat footwear and cost-of-living pressure weighed on its core customer.

Despite the weaker top line, JD reiterated unchanged full-year guidance of £700m to £800m in underlying profit and £460m to £520m in free cash flow. The group also swung to net cash of £168m from net debt a year earlier and raised its interim dividend by 21%. The table below sets the half-year numbers against last year’s.

Measure	HY27	HY26
Organic sales growth	-0.7%	–
Like-for-like sales growth	-2.8%	–
Profit before tax and adjusting items	£282m	£351m

The figures show trading has not yet improved. The move looks like relief that guidance held and the balance sheet strengthened, rather than evidence of a trading recovery. Chief executive Régis Schultz described the performance in the following terms.

Our Group organic sales were -0.7% for the half, a resilient performance against a challenging backdrop of consumer cost-of-living pressures, footwear product cycle headwinds and a highly promotional market.

Régis Schultz, CEO, JD Sports Fashion plc

With sales still soft, the market’s attention now shifts to whether the £700m-£800m guidance range holds through the second half.