UK's WH Smith H1 profit drops; suspends dividend

WH Smith

23/04/2026 07:12

Overview

UK travel essentials retailer's H1 revenue rose 5% yr/yr

Headline EPS fell, affected by inflation and airport store refurbishments

Company suspended dividend to reduce debt amid cautious outlook

Outlook

WH Smith expects FY26 headline group profit before tax of £90 mln-£105 mln

Company anticipates FY26 group revenue growth of about 3%-5%

WH Smith takes cautious outlook due to Middle East conflict impacting passenger numbers and confidence

Result Drivers

UK STORE REFURBISHMENTS AND INFLATION - Co said UK trading was impacted by disruption from refurbishing large airport stores and inflation headwinds

NORTH AMERICA TRAVEL ESSENTIALS GROWTH OFFSET - Strong performance in North America Travel Essentials, but profit reduced by increased logistics and labour costs

INFLATION AND CHALLENGING MARKETS IN ROW - Trading loss in Rest of World division driven by inflationary pressures and underperformance in some markets

Company press release: ID:nRSW5668Ba

Key Details

Metric
Beat/Miss
Actual
Consensus Estimate
H1 Revenue
GBP 748 mln
H1 Adjusted Pretax Profit
Beat
GBP 3 mln
GBP 1 mln (1 Analyst)

Analyst Coverage

The current average analyst rating on the shares is "buy" and the breakdown of recommendations is 6 "strong buy" or "buy", 6 "hold" and no "sell" or "strong sell"

The average consensus recommendation for the miscellaneous specialty retailers peer group is "buy"

Wall Street's median 12-month price target for WH Smith PLC is GBp675.00, about 7.4% above its April 22 closing price of GBp628.50

The stock recently traded at 11 times the next 12-month earnings vs. a P/E of 10 three months ago

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(This story was created using Reuters automation and AI based on LSEG and company data. It was checked and edited by a Reuters journalist prior to publication.)