Shares in Inditex, the Spanish retail giant and owner of Zara and Massimo Dutti chains, fell 7.6% on Wednesday morning after it reported stronger than expected earnings for the final quarter of 2024 but revealed softer trading in the early weeks of 2025.
Sales grew 7.5% last year to reach €38.6 billion, with €11.21 billion in the fourth quarter, while EBITDA increased 8.9% to €10.7 billion, beating expectations by around 3%.
The dividend was hiked 9% to €1.68, although there is no share buyback or other one-off dividend.
Current trading for the period from the start of February saw sales up 4%, which was below the bottom end of the range of analyst expectations, even though the company said Spring/Summer collections "have been well received by our customers".
Analysts at Barclays said this recent sales growth "may drive sentiment early on".
Deutsche Bank said: "Expectations were lower than usual for Inditex given other market data points, but this is a miss on a well liked stock without the 4Q beat that was expected."