Ferragamo shares fall sharply following the results announcement; analysts remain cautious about the second half of the year

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - A wave of selling on Salvatore Ferragamo following the release of its first-half results yesterday. The share price has been hit, in particular, not so much by the figures for the first six months of the year as by management’s comments, in which they admitted to a slowdown in July, and the still weak outlook for the future.

More specifically, the luxury goods company reported consolidated revenue of 468 million in the first half of 2026 , down 1.3 per cent (at current exchange rates) compared with the first six months of 2025 (+1.9 per cent at constant exchange rates). The result was adversely affected by the negative performance of the wholesale channel (-11.2% at constant exchange rates and -11.6% at current exchange rates), whilst the direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel posted a ‘positive’ performance (+1.8% at current exchange rates and +6.1% at constant exchange rates). In the first half of the year, net profit, including minority interests, stood at 1.5 million, compared with an adjusted loss of 16 million (excluding the negative impact of the impairment test, which brought the result to -57 million at the end of June 2025).

“In light of the results, we are revising our profitability assumptions upwards, increasing our forecast for the gross margin and raising our estimate for EBIT for 2026 to around 46 million euros, above the approximately €35 million indicated by management and the market consensus,” commented analysts at Banca Akros, who consequently also raised their earnings per share estimates for the period 2026–2028, though without specifying the percentage increase. Akros has also raised its target price for the share from €9 to €10 and confirmed its ‘Neutral’ recommendation.

Conversely, Intermonte’s analysts have downgraded the share’s rating to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Neutral’, whilst leaving the target price unchanged at 7 euros. According to the Sim analysts, ‘the conference call confirmed progress in the brand repositioning strategy and an improvement in operational discipline, but did not provide sufficient evidence to justify an upward revision of earnings estimates’. The recovery of core products, as well as the positive growth of the DTC channel, “are encouraging signs”, according to Intermonte, “however, weaker sales in July, particularly challenging year-on-year comparisons in the second half of 2026, the persistent weakness of the Chinese customer base and the CEO position still vacant lead us to maintain a cautious approach”.

During the earnings conference call, Ernesto Greco, a member of Salvatore Ferragamo’s executive board, highlighted “a certain slowdown” in July, with total revenue “still in positive territory, although growth was lower than that recorded in the first half of the year”. This slowdown, Greco explained, “is due in part to less dynamic US market conditions, but also to the decision to shorten the sales period”. Furthermore, “the geopolitical context is probably not helping either, because an environment characterised by high uncertainty and turbulence does not encourage consumer spending”, said the manager, whilst emphasising, however, that “Ferragamo is currently focused on the medium to long term” in order to “lay the foundations for building a very solid company”.