SHARE OF THE WEEK

JD Sports has fared better than most retailers in the year since the UK first went into lockdown.

It didn’t take long for the country’s wardrobe to shift from shirts and ties to the mix of comfortable and sporty clothing that is dubbed ‘athleisure’. This is where JD – which sells products by bigname labels such as Adidas and Nike – thrives.

Next Tuesday will reveal just how much hay it has managed to make in a year that has decimated much of the industry.

In January it wowed the City with a trading update that said annual profits would reach at least £400m after a strong Christmas – much higher than the £295m analysts had pencilled in.

Investors will be holding their breath to see if it managed to reach or even surpass that forecast. JPMorgan reckons it will be profits of £415m and sales of £6.2bn.

They will also want to know what the profit growth outlook is for the rest of this year.

JD has tentatively put it at between 5pc and 10pc.

William Ryder, equity analyst at investment service Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘We’ll be looking to see whether the events of the last few months, including the new lockdown restrictions in Europe, have affected those targets.’

And any updates about takeovers and overseas expansion will be welcome after it raised £464m from shareholders and struck deals in the United States and Poland.

The FTSE100 company’s shares closed up 5.1pc, or 44.6p, to 917p last night – and are now trading at around the same level as before the pandemic.