(BFM Stock Exchange) – Inditex has unveiled the highest annual results in its history in terms of the 2024 financial year. But the increase in sales at the start of the financial year has investors.

Inditex has still managed to get out of the game in a very competitive universe of fashion at low prices. Last year, the parent company of Zara and Zara Home or Pull & Bear brands, Bershka, Massimo Dutti or Stradivarius has once again recorded a historic exercise.

In 2024, its income increased by 7.5% over one year in published data and 10.5% excluding exchange effects, to display at a record level of 38.6 billion euros for 2024-2025, the exercise of the company being slightly offset at the end of January.

The operating profit increased by 11% to 7.6 billion euros, translating a margin up 70 base points (0.7 percentage points) to 19.6%. Net profit also reaches a historic level of 5.87 billion euros, exceeding its previous record of 2023 by 9%, housed at 5.4 billion euros.

“This success illustrates the solidity of the Inditex economic model, characterized by high -quality offers, operational efficiency and a constant innovation developed over the 50 years of history,” appreciates Javier Molina, market analyst at Etoro.

A slowdown in the rate at the start of the year

However, these historical results are freshly welcomed by investors. The Action Inditex drops from 7.5% around 3:40 p.m. bringing the capitalization of the most powerful company in the Madrid Stock Exchange, at less than 140 billion euros, according to companiesmarketcap.com data.

It must be said that the first trends for the first quarter show a slowdown in Inditex’s growth dynamics. Its sales over the period from February 1 to March 10 increased by only 4% compared to the same period of 2024, which marks a clear slowdown compared to the fourth quarter (+8%).

This growth is also lower than the consensus for the first quarter of 2025, notes Oddo BHF, which means that better dynamics for Inditex sales is necessary at the end of March and April.

According to UBS analysts, these are even the weakest sales indications unveiled by the company since 2016, outside the period of the pandemic.