JD Sports Fashion plc’s share price is under renewed pressure on Tuesday, 18 November 2025, even as the FTSE 100 retailer pushes ahead with high‑profile brand and store investments – including its largest European store in Barcelona and a dominant new billboard presence in Manchester.
Investors are now firmly focused on Thursday’s Q3 trading statement (20 November), which is expected to show whether JD Sports can stabilise like‑for‑like sales after a tough year for discretionary retail. [1]
Key points for today – 18 November 2025
- Share price today: JD Sports trades around 77.0p, down about 1.9% on the day and roughly 33% lower than a year ago, leaving the stock near the bottom third of its 52‑week range. [2]
- Volatile start to the week: On Monday (17 November), the shares fell 4.73% to 78.50p on heavy volume, leaving the stock about 34% below its 52‑week high of 119p. [3]
- New Barcelona flagship: JD has announced the opening of its largest store in Europe in central Barcelona – a 1,500 m², two‑floor flagship on Portal de l’Àngel, employing 110 people and opening to the public on 22 November. [4]
- Manchester megabillboard: The group has also launched the first campaign on The Manchester Screen, billed as the largest out‑of‑home (OOH) site of its kind in the UK, wrapping Victoria Warehouse with a 1,140 m² digital and vinyl installation. [5]
- Q3 update this Thursday: Analysts expect the 20 November trading statement to be pivotal after earlier profit downgrades and a still‑cautious consumer backdrop in the UK and US. [6]
- Ongoing £100m buyback: JD continues to execute a £100 million share buyback programme running to 31 January 2026, with 2.33 million shares bought back yesterday alone. [7]
JD Sports share price today (18 November 2025)
As of late morning on Tuesday, JD Sports Fashion plc is trading around 77.0 pence on the London Stock Exchange, down roughly 1.50p (-1.91%) on the session. [8]
Key snapshot:
- Last price: 77.0p
- Day’s range: roughly 75.8p–77.8p [9]
- Volume: about 5–5.2 million shares traded so far today [10]
- 52‑week range: about 61.2p–117.9p [11]
- 1‑year share price change: approximately –33.6% [12]
The weakness follows Monday’s sharp drop, when MarketWatch reported that the stock fell 4.73% to 78.50p on elevated volume of 17.5 million shares, well above the 50‑day average of 13.4 million. [13]
That heavy two‑day sell‑off underlines how nervous the market remains ahead of Thursday’s Q3 trading statement – despite JD’s ongoing share buyback and continued international expansion.
All the JD Sports news dated 18 November 2025
1. Barcelona: JD opens its largest European store
JD Sports has confirmed that it is about to open its largest store in Europe on 9 Portal de l’Àngel, one of Barcelona’s busiest and most expensive shopping streets. [14]
According to FashionNetwork:
- The flagship covers 1,500 square metres over two floors.
- It will employ around 110 people.
- The store will open to the public on 22 November 2025.
- It sits inside a historic building combining three centuries‑old palaces, with the design carefully adapted to preserve the architecture. [15]
JD executives describe the site as a “step change” in how the brand connects with consumers in Southern Europe. The store:
- Anchors JD on one of the busiest retail streets in Europe, capturing both tourists and locals.
- Features a mix of JD’s own brands and major labels such as Nike, Adidas, New Balance and Asics. [16]
- Includes a dedicated space for Nike’s women’s collections, with planned events and activations. [17]
With the opening of this site, JD will have around 530 employees in Barcelona and 690 across Catalonia, and it reiterates its target of reaching 150 stores in Spain over the medium term. [18]
For investors, this flagship underlines JD’s strategy of “bigger and better” stores in key global cities – a theme already highlighted in September’s interim results, which showed net new store openings and relocations pushing organic sales growth even as like‑for‑like sales declined. [19]
2. Manchester: JD launches first campaign on UK’s biggest OOH site
Back home, JD is doubling down on brand visibility in its Manchester heartland.
A new press release from NewsByWire confirms that JD Sports has “kicked off” the first ever campaign on The Manchester Screen’s new supersized out‑of‑home site at Victoria Warehouse, billed as the largest of its kind in the UK. [20]
Highlights:
- The installation combines a huge digital screen with a full vinyl wrap, together spanning about 1,140 m². [21]
- The site sits on one of Manchester’s busiest gateways between the city centre and MediaCity, delivering an estimated 21+ million impressions per year. [22]
- JD’s takeover is tied to its annual retail conference at Victoria Warehouse and features a giant replica of JD’s yellow shopping bag suspended from the roof – designed as a highly shareable visual moment. [23]
Media buyers involved in the project describe the campaign as a showcase of how large‑format OOH can amplify JD’s strong connection with Manchester’s youth and streetwear culture, making the brand “confident, visible and impossible to miss.” [24]
This kind of high‑impact branding is consistent with JD’s global strategy of making major city‑level statements – pairing flagships like Barcelona with eye‑catching campaigns that feed social media and keep the brand front‑of‑mind with its target customers.
3. Market focus: Q3 trading update preview and analyst sentiment
While today’s headlines are dominated by Barcelona and Manchester, the key near‑term catalyst for the share price remains Thursday’s Q3 2025/26 trading statement (20 November), flagged in JD’s own financial calendar. [25]
A detailed trading update preview from IG – published yesterday but still highly relevant today – frames JD’s positioning as “delicate” after a series of profit downgrades and mixed regional trends: [26]
- Second‑quarter sales: group Q2 sales reached about £3.1 billion, with organic growth just above 2% but a 3% like‑for‑like decline. [27]
- First‑half performance: total sales for H1 2025/26 were £5.94 billion, up about 18% (20% at constant FX), with organic growth of +2.7% but a –2.5% LFL decline and a 13.5% drop in profit before tax and adjusting items to £351m. [28]
- Regional picture:
- North America has shown improved organic growth, helped by new footwear lines and strong apparel and online sales.
- Europe remains relatively resilient.
- The UK is the weakest market, with Q2 like‑for‑like sales down 6.1% and organic sales down 4.4%, reflecting tough comparisons after Euro 2024 and cautious consumer spending. [29]
- Guidance: Despite weaker LFL trends, management has reiterated that FY26 profit before tax and adjusting items should be in line with current market expectations, even after a January profit warning that cut the forecast to the £915–935m range. [30]
IG also summarises consensus analyst sentiment:
- 4 “strong buy”, 5 “buy” and 8 “hold” ratings.
- A mean long‑term price target of around 121.0p, about 48% above the current share price (as of 17 November). [31]
That gap between the depressed trading price and analyst targets is one reason JD’s buyback and growth strategy are under such close scrutiny.
Buybacks, board changes and capital allocation
Second £100m share buyback in full swing
JD is currently in the middle of a £100 million share buyback programme, announced in late September and expected to complete by 31 January 2026. [32]
Key details:
- The buyback is being executed by Peel Hunt LLP on JD’s behalf, under an irrevocable agreement. [33]
- Yesterday, 17 November 2025, JD disclosed the purchase of 2,333,148 ordinary shares at a volume‑weighted average price of 80.86p, with trades ranging between 78.52p and 82.60p. [34]
- Following that transaction, the company held 79,897,460 shares in treasury and had around 4,995,349,675 ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury). [35]
This is JD’s second consecutive £100m buyback. The first, completed in July 2025, saw the group acquire about 121.7 million shares at an average price of roughly 82.68p, returning almost the full £100m to shareholders. [36]
From a capital allocation standpoint, the repeat buyback signals that management:
- Views the share price as undervalued relative to medium‑term prospects.
- Is confident enough in cash generation to return capital while still funding expansion, acquisitions (such as Hibbett and Courir) and large‑scale store projects like the Barcelona flagship. [37]
However, the market will want Thursday’s trading statement to validate this confidence with tangible evidence of improving trends – especially in the UK.
Governance: new non‑executive director joins the board
On 10 November 2025, JD announced the appointment of Sarah Kuijlaars as an independent non‑executive director. [38]
Key points from the appointment:
- Kuijlaars is currently Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Tate & Lyle plc, adding heavyweight financial and consumer‑sector expertise to JD’s board. [39]
- She joins both the Audit & Risk Committee and the Nomination Committee immediately and will become Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee from 1 June 2026, succeeding Ian Dyson (who remains a committee member). [40]
- Her CV includes previous CFO roles at De Beers Group and Arcadis NV, plus senior finance positions at Rolls‑Royce and Shell. [41]
For investors, the appointment strengthens the financial oversight of a group that is:
- Integrating major US and European acquisitions.
- Managing significant capital expenditure on distribution centres and large stores.
- Running repeated nine‑figure buyback programmes. [42]
Solid audit leadership is particularly important as JD navigates complex inventory, tariff and FX dynamics across more than 4,800 stores in 36 countries. [43]
How the business is really trading: latest fundamentals in brief
JD’s own interim results and subsequent commentary give a more complete picture of the underlying business than the share price alone suggests:
- Sales growth: H1 2025/26 sales rose to £5.94bn, up 18% reported and 20% at constant FX, driven largely by acquisitions (Hibbett and Courir) and net new stores. Organic growth was +2.7%, but like‑for‑like sales fell 2.5%. [44]
- Margins and profit: Group gross margin slipped about 60 bps year‑on‑year to 48.0%, and profit before tax and adjusting items fell 13.5% to £351m, reflecting heavier promotions, tough US trading earlier in the year and still‑soft footwear cycles. [45]
- Regional splits:
- North America: Q2 like‑for‑like sales down 2.3%, but organic sales up 4.8% to £1.12bn, helped by new footwear launches and stronger online and apparel trends. [46]
- Europe: Q2 sales of about £1.06bn, with LFL –1.1% but organic +5.4%. [47]
- UK: Q2 sales of roughly £806m, LFL –6.1%, organic –4.4% – the softest region, hit by tough Euro‑boosted comparators and cautious consumers. [48]
- Asia Pacific: Smaller in scale, but with organic growth above 9% in Q2. [49]
- Cash and leverage: JD remains highly cash generative, with H1 operating cash flow after leases of £546m, up 5% year‑on‑year, and net debt (pre‑leases) of just £125m – with an expectation of moving back to net cash by year‑end. [50]
Overall, JD still looks like a growth‑oriented global sports fashion retailer facing a cyclical squeeze in its core UK and US markets, rather than a broken business model. The question for Thursday’s statement is whether early autumn trading shows enough stabilisation to keep the buyback‑and‑expansion story on track.
What to watch in the 20 November trading statement
Based on recent company disclosures and analyst previews, here are the key things investors will likely focus on this week:
- Like‑for‑like sales trends in Q3
- Any sign that LFL declines are moderating – especially in the UK – would be seen as a positive.
- Investors will scrutinise the balance between footwear and apparel, where JD has signalled differing trends. [51]
- North America momentum
- Q2 showed improved organic growth in North America after previous weakness; the market will want to see that this has continued into Q3. [52]
- Margin discipline in a promotional market
- The January profit warning blamed aggressive discounting across the sector. Any commentary on maintaining pricing discipline while protecting volumes will be crucial. [53]
- Updated guidance
- So far JD expects FY26 PBTAI to remain roughly in line with consensus (around £878m, range ~£853m–£914m). A confirmation of this range would likely calm nerves; any downgrade would almost certainly weigh on the shares. [54]
- Progress on strategic priorities
- Investors will be looking for concrete data points on the benefits of new distribution centres, the performance of recent flagship stores (like Manchester’s Trafford Centre) and the integration of Hibbett and Courir. [55]
- Capital allocation and buyback run‑rate
- With the share price depressed and the buyback ongoing, any update on how much of the £100m programme has been executed so far will shape expectations for per‑share earnings and near‑term demand for the stock. [56]
Bottom line: high‑profile growth moves, low‑profile share price
On 18 November 2025, JD Sports is sending out very different signals to two key audiences:
- To consumers, it is doubling down on big, experiential retail – opening its largest European store in Barcelona and lighting up the UK’s largest OOH site in Manchester. [57]
- To investors, the share price remains under pressure despite repeated buybacks and international expansion, as the market waits for proof that trading conditions have truly stabilised in the UK and US. [58]
If Thursday’s Q3 trading statement can show improving momentum, steady margins and reaffirmed guidance, it could help close the gap between today’s sub‑80p share price and analyst targets north of 120p. [59]
Until then, JD Sports Fashion plc sits at an interesting crossroads: a global brand still investing heavily in growth – but priced by the market as if the headwinds might last longer than management expects.
This article is for information only and does not constitute investment advice. Always do your own research or consult a regulated adviser before making investment decisions.
References
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