Analysis of UK Profit Warnings

In Strategy and Transactions

We have tracked profit warnings from UK-registered companies since 1999, giving us powerful insight into business, capital and economy.

What is a profit warning?

A profit warning is an official statement to the stock exchange from a publicly listed company that says that it will report full-year profits materially below management or market expectations.

Our analysis of UK-registered companies listed on the UK’s Main Market or Alternative Investment Market provides you with insights into profit warning trends and key economic, sector and market issues facing UK businesses. You can delve into the latest quarter’s findings and access over 15 years’ worth of data at the click of a button through our console. Use our profit warning data to understand trends and identify the forces affecting your market and reshaping your path ahead.

UK Profit Warnings Q2 2024 headlines

UK-listed companies issued 49 profit warnings in Q2 2024, 26% fewer than the same quarter of 2023 and the lowest number since Q2 2021.

A high pace of profit warnings is often followed by a steep fall if conditions improve and more companies meet lowered expectations – as we saw in 2009 and 2021 after the global financial crisis and the pandemic. Whilst our data undoubtedly reflects 2024’s economic recovery, it also underscores the challenges ahead.

The latest profit warnings show the ongoing impact of cost-cutting, as well as companies’ increasing investment needs, which will be hard to achieve against a backdrop of weak growth and higher capital costs. Restructuring activity continues to rise as companies wrestle with these pressures. The economic outlook has improved, but companies still need to be prepared for a wide variety of outcomes in 2024.

In the last 12 months,

18.4%

of UK listed companies issued profit warnings.

In the last 12 months,

28%

FTSE Industrial Support Services companies have warned.

In Q2 2024,

5

FTSE Retailers have warned.

In Q2 2024,

27%

of companies cited rising overhead costs.

Download our Profit Warnings Q2 2024 report.

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What can over 20 years of profit warning data tell us?

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