Sainsbury’s shares down after H1 profit misses estimates

Investing.com -- Shares of J Sainsbury (LON:SBRY ) fell over 1% on Thursday after it reported its half-year results, reflecting mixed performance across various segments and an unexpected operating profit miss.

The UK’s second-largest supermarket chain’s retail operating profit for the first half of fiscal 2025 fell short of expectations by 2.5%, this was due to the underperformance of its Argos division. 

Despite this, the company’s overall like-for-like group sales grew by 4.1% in the second quarter, outpacing consensus estimates, though this did not suffice to offset concerns about operating efficiency and profitability.

Sainsbury’s grocery segment showed resilience, with a 9% year-on-year increase in profit before central group costs, and a margin improvement of 20 basis points. 

However, analysts at Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS ) noted that this growth is relatively modest when compared to rival Tesco (OTC:TSCDY ), which reported a 30-basis-point margin increase and a 10% profit boost in its latest earnings. 

Argos, Sainsbury’s non-grocery arm, continued to struggle under challenging operational conditions, particularly in the first quarter, which ultimately dampened the retailer's overall profit growth. 

“We think the market will focus on the moving parts behind the guidance - in order to reach midpoint/ top end would imply 11% y/y - 15% y/y growth in 2H, which would imply a meaningful acceleration in performance,” said analysts at Morgan Stanley in a note. 

While the retailer reaffirmed its full-year guidance for retail underlying operating profit between £1.01 billion and £1.06 billion, Morgan Stanley said that the market had anticipated a narrowing of this range, leaning toward a reduced upper limit. 

Analysts suggest that the maintenance of the top-end forecast might be met with skepticism, as achieving this would require substantial improvement across the retail and financial services segments in the upcoming quarters.

However, Sainsbury’s financial services division delivered stronger-than-expected results, with its contribution to underlying profit before tax aligning overall PBT with market expectations despite weaker retail profitability. 

In addition, clothing sales exceeded projections, registering an 8% year-on-year rise—a rare bright spot driven by favorable comparisons from a weaker previous period.

Source: Investing.com