The company said net profit rose to 4.3 billion kronor ($488 million) in the September-November period, up from 2.9 billion kronor a year earlier.

That was higher than the 3.8 billion kronor expected by analysts surveyed by the financial data firm FactSet.

For 2025 as a whole, net profit rose to 12 billion kronor from 11.6 billion kronor a year earlier.

“Through a strengthened customer offering, good cost control and improved inventory productivity, we continue to take important steps towards all our long-term targets in a challenging environment,” chief executive Daniel Erver said in a statement.

Operating profit for the fourth quarter climbed to 6.4 billion kronor, up from 4.6 billion kronor a year earlier.

Fourth-quarter sales dipped to 59.2 billion kronor from 62 billion kronor, in line with analysts’ expectations, hit by a currency translation effect of around seven percentage points due to the strengthened Swedish krona.

H&M said online sales continued to “perform well”, representing just over 30% of total sales.

The operating margin at the end of the fourth quarter was 10.7%, up from 7.4% a year earlier.

H&M said it expected sales in December and January to dip by 2% on a like-for-like currency basis from a year earlier, as strong Black Friday sales in late November were followed by “subdued demand” in several markets in December.

In addition, the Chinese New Year falling in February this year instead of January would lead to a “negative calendar effect”.

Looking ahead, Erver said the “continued geopolitical and economic uncertainty” at the start of the year underscored “the importance of an efficient organisation with short decision paths that operates close to the customer and has a high degree of flexibility and continued good cost control”.