H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB’s share price up, reports increasing sales growth in October, plans to launch eight new online stores in 2015

The second-largest clothing retailer on the territory of Europe – H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB made an official statement that its sales growth increased in October. The result eased some concerns related to the impact of mild weather conditions on autumn apparel collections.

Simon Bowler, an analyst at Exane BNP Paribas said in a note, cited by Bloomberg: “Sales momentum continues to be volatile, but this result is reassuring against a notably tough German market. We assume H&M has not been immune there, but has seen sales strength across the remainder of the business.”

H&M announced that its revenue including value-added tax rose 14% in comparison with a year ago, denominated in local currency. The result outpaced the analysts forecasts, pointing to a growth of 9.1%. In September the company reported 8% growth in revenues.

The unseasonably warm weather in September and October this year triggered concerns in regard to the companys cold-weather apparel sales over the period. H&M revealed that its same-store sales rose 4% in October, compared to 1% in the same month a year earlier, while two years ago the company reported a 5-percent decline.

In addition, at the end of September the company said it intends to launch eight to ten new online markets during the upcoming year. In 2014 it launched e-stores in four countries – France in March, Italy and Spain in August, and China in September.

H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB added 0.13% to trade at SEK 307.50 per share as of 14:31 GMT, marking a one-year increase of 11.86%. The company is valued at SEK 448.57 billion. According to the Financial Times, the 29 analysts offering 12-month price targets for H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB have a median target of SEK 320.00, with a high estimate of SEK 400.00 and a low estimate of SEK 185.00. The median estimate represents a +4.20% increase from the last price of SEK 307.10.