Pets at Home Group PLC (LSE:PETS) results and strategy update offered some encouragement, but not all analysts saw it as changing the picture much.
Peel Hunt analyst Jonathan Pritchard said the interims "reflected a poor half of trading on the retail side, and a solid half in vets".
The new four-pronged plan under executive chair Ian Burke to rejuvenate the business focussess on price, product, execution and costs, with aims to cut £20 million from the cost base for the 2027 financial year with the restructuring of the head office.
"Current trading does not sound any worse than [the second quarter], but little better too," he said, with vets "likely a little slower" but retail in "a similar shape" in that online growth is strong while store performance is not.
The group held guidance for profit before tax at £90-100 million, versus the City consensus at around £92 million.
"The news on cost savings may incline some to ease FY27 estimates up, but we intend to make no changes to our forecasts today as there is still plenty of uncertainty on trading here," Pritchard said, maintaining his 'hoold' recommendation.
"The shares are not cheap given a lack of underlying forecast momentum."
Andrew Wade at Jefferies said, due to the £20 million of restructuring savings, he was raising his 2027 PBT estimate by 15%, which flowed through to his share price target, which he raised from 250p to 265p.
"PETS continues to offer solid fundamentals (scale, long-term market trends, vet group) and we see upside in the shares."
In terms of numbers, he was encouraged to see guidance reiterated, though this was predicated on a return to "slightly positive" retail like-for-likes in the second half.
With the business moving from an H1 market share loss to a small H2 gain, given the weaker performance in the comparative period would support this, Wade said, particularly supported by benefits from the new initiatives.