Adidas: stock heading for record fall after World Cup marketing pressures profit

At around 10 am (Brasília time), shares fell 17.3% on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, to 150.65 euros. Year to date, the stock has fallen more than 10%.

The company spent close to 1 billion euros on marketing in the quarter ended in June, around 30% more than in the same period last year, as it intensified promotional activities around the FIFA World Cup held in North America. The tournament ended positively for Adidas, uniform supplier and sponsor of Spain and Argentina, finalists in the competition.

But increased marketing expenses limited operating profit, which rose 5% in one year to 574 million euros, below the market consensus of 623 million euros.

In a conference call, Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden said he was surprised by the drop in shares.

The company reiterated its operating profit projection for 2026, at around 2.3 billion euros, below the almost 2.5 billion euros estimated by analysts.

Both the result and the lack of an increase in guidance should be disappointing, wrote analyst Piral Dadhania, from RBC Capital Markets, in a note.

Adidas also stated that its projection does not consider possible refunds of tariffs in the US of between US$250 million and US$300 million, amounts that could be recovered in the future.

In absolute terms, Adidas had a strong quarter, Deutsche Bank analysts said. Still, the numbers could frustrate investors given the rise in expectations related to the World Cup, they added. Source: Dow Jones Newswires.

*Content translated with the help of Artificial Intelligence, reviewed and edited by the Broadcast editorial team, Grupo Estado’s real-time news system.