JPMorgan slashes B&M price target after update, reiterates 'underweight'

(Sharecast News) - JPMorgan Cazenove slashed its price target on B&M European Value Retail on Wednesday to 207p from 281p and reiterated its 'underweight' rating following the discount retailer's trading update a day earlier. "Our concerns mount following the 1Q26 trading update shared by B&M yesterday," the bank said.

"First, UK LFL came in at +1.3% (versus 2.5-3% Street expectations and JPMe at 5%), which suggests very weak sales densities in the context of ongoing space addition," it said.

JPM said the underlying trends are even more concerning in the context of weather and calendar tailwinds in the period, while the LFL outcome implies a very meaningful gap versus other reporters, across grocery and general retail.

"Second, the absence of an FY26 outlook at this point (only reporter amongst peer group) is reflective of the lack of visibility and action plan, in our view," JPM said.

"Third, and perhaps most important, we are not yet convinced that management are focused on addressing what we see as the most challenging aspects of the investment case, at least for the time being."

The bank said it was revising its expectations down to reflect a more acute price-reset needed to revamp LFLs, sitting around double digit percentage below the Street.

JPM said it continues to prefer Sainsbury and Tesco, both of which are rated 'overweight', as more visible investment cases in the UK.

At 0808 BST, B&M shares were down 0.9% at 232.14p.