Operating profit for March to May, the Swedish group's second quarter, was 7.1 billion Swedish kronor ($672.5 million), compared with 4.74 billion a year earlier and an average forecast of 7.37 billion according to an LSEG analyst survey.
June 2024 sales are expected to decline 6% in local currency compared with the same period a year earlier, partly due to unsettled weather in many of the group's major markets, H&M said.
CEO Daniel Erver said the group still believed in its 10% operating margin target for 2024, but that it had become more difficult to achieve.
"External factors influencing our purchasing costs and sales revenue, including materials and foreign exchange, will have a more negative impact than we expected in the second half of the year," he said.
"The most important prerequisite for achieving our target is for sales growth to strengthen further in the second half of the year compared to the increase in the second quarter," he added.
The retailer has often lagged behind competitor and Zara owner Inditex , while China-founded fast fashion group Shein is also expanding rapidly in Europe and plans to list on the London stock exchange.
(1 U.S. dollar = 10.5564 Swedish kronor)
(Reporting by Marie Mannes; editing by Terje Solsvik; edited in Spanish by Benjamín Mejías Valencia)
