The shares her H&M they collapsed more than 14% on Thursday morning after the company posted a smaller-than-expected increase in earnings second quarter and cast doubt on its June sales and profit margin target for the rest of 2024.

The world’s second-largest clothing retailer said operating profit for the March-May period came in at 7.1 billion Swedish crowns ($672 million), below the 7.37 billion Swedish crowns forecast by analysts. analysts, however compared to the same period in 2023 an increase of SEK 4.7 billion was recorded.

The company also said bad weather (in northern Europe) is likely to dampen sales in June, which it expects to fall 6% compared to the same period last year.

“We will hardly hit the profit margin target for 2024,” said the company’s CEO

In a further drag on the stock, H&M’s chief executive, Daniel Erverquestioned the company’s ability to meet its profit margin target this year.

“Our full-year 2024 operating margin target of 10% remains in place,” he said. “However, the conditions to achieve this level this year have become more difficult as external factors affecting purchasing costs and sales revenue are estimated to have a greater negative impact than we expected in the second half.”

At the same time, he added that the clothing giant continues to invest both in its online services and in stores, upgrading the experiences it offers to consumers especially in Paris, Milan, Berlin, Stockholm, Hamburg and Munich, to the standards already applied in New York, London and Tokyo.