Continued strong trading so far in H2 has led JD to upgrade its full year PBT guidance to c£135m, leading us to upgrade our forecasts by 3.8% from £130m (cons £125m). JD’s prospects look favourable given the ongoing trend towards athletic apparel and footwear, suggesting there may yet be further upside risk to forecasts. However, limited disclosure at a time when divisional and geographic complexity is on the increase makes this difficult to be certain of. With the stock trading on a cal’16 P/E of 18x or 10x EV/EBITDA which now equates to a 10-15% premium versus Sports Direct. Hold
