{
  "id": 9522507,
  "title": "H&M stock slides as tepid growth outlook offsets Q3 profit beat",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/24/h-m-stock-slides-as-tepid-growth-outlook-offsets-q3-profit-beat",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-24T08:11:40.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Investing.com",
    "slug": "investing-com",
    "url": "https://www.investing.com/news/earnings/hm-beats-profit-forecasts-in-q3-expects-september-sales-to-rise-1-4914494"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "H&M reported a significant increase in operating profit for the third quarter, reaching 6.04 billion crowns ($608.63 million) compared to 4.91 billion crowns a year earlier. This beat analyst expectations, which had averaged 5.14 billion crowns. The company's cost-control measures and improved purchasing helped push margins higher, with gross margin rising to 54.0% from 52.9%. Despite this profit boost, H&M's shares fell over 3%, as investors were disappointed by the company's guidance for September sales growth, which is expected to only increase by 1% in local currencies. This comes despite a 1% rise in sales during the quarter. CEO Daniel Erver attributed the profit improvement to gains in purchasing, cost control, and operational efficiency. However, H&M noted that external factors, such as higher freight costs and markdown costs, weighed slightly on purchasing expenses during the quarter. Additionally, currency movements on intragroup payables and receivables had a neutral impact on gross margin. For the fourth quarter, H&M expects external factors to have a somewhat negative impact, with markdown costs as a percentage of sales expected to increase slightly due to a longer and more extensive pre-Black Friday campaign period, including Cyber Monday in November.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}