Australia's JB Hi-Fi tumbles on soft start to new fiscal year (updated)

JB Hi-Fi

17/08/2026 02:06

July sales slip 0.5%, miss Visible Alpha forecast of 3.2% growth
FY26 sales rise 4.8% to record A$11.06 billion, NPAT up 6%
Shares fall up to 14.6%, head for worst day since March 2020
Rewrites throughout, adds analyst comments in paragraphs 4-5&9
By Shivangi  Lahiri and Rajasik Mukherjee
Aug 17 (Reuters) - Australian electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi JBH.AX flagged a soft start to fiscal year 2027 on Monday and warned that trading conditions were getting harder, sending its shares towards their worst session since March 2020 despite record annual sales.
The update reinforced concerns that Australia's consumer spending recovery remains uneven, raising doubts about whether JB Hi-Fi can sustain the earnings growth that has made it one of the country's best-performing retail stocks in recent years.
JB Hi-Fi said total sales at its core Australian business fell 0.5% in July, citing increasingly promotion-driven consumer spending, supplier price rises and stock shortages in technology categories. That also missed a Visible Alpha forecast of 3.2% growth.
"The bigger concern for investors and driver of this morning's sell has been the start of FY27 trading," said Cameron Curko, CIO at accounting and business advisory firm Pitcher Partners.
"Comments concerning variability in trading and consumer focus on key promotional events to look for value as well as stock availability challenges all suggest a trickier trading environment."
JB Hi-Fi shares fell as much as 14.6% to A$69.770 and were among the top laggards in the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO. The stock has declined 25% so far this year after three straight years of gains. 
"We continue to see variability in trading, with customers increasingly looking for value and migrating spend to key promotional events, along with impacts from supplier price rises and stock availability shortages in the technology categories," Group CEO Nick Wells said.
The weak outlook overshadowed otherwise solid full-year results, with sales rising 4.8% to a record A$11.06 billion  ($7.86 billion) and net profit after tax up 6% at A$489.9 million.
"In this backdrop, it is unsurprising to see investor fears reassert themselves, particularly given the slowdown in the property market that might be expected to further weigh on business results," said Curko. 
($1 = 1.4077 Australian dollars)

 (Reporting by Shivangi Lahiri & Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Subhranshu Sahu)
 ((Shivangi.Lahiri@thomsonreuters.com;))