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Investing.com — Shares of Next PLC (OTC:) (LON:) rose on Thursday as the retailer’s positive outlook for full-year profits overshadowed mixed first-half results.

At 3:34am (0734 GMT), Next was trading 3.2% higher at £10,670.

The company revised up its profit before tax (PBT) guidance for FY25 to £995m, up from a previous estimate of £980m.

This adjustment comes in line with RBC Capital Markets’ projection of £1,002m. First-half results were mixed, but certain divisions beat expectations, contributing to a stronger forecast.

Total sales for the half year were £2.9bn, just above RBC’s £2.8bn consensus estimate.

Profits were also above target, with underlying reported PBT of £452m, beating the £441m forecast.

Next’s earnings per share came in at 282.8p, beating RBC expectations of 269.1p.

Among the various business segments, retail sales reported revenues of £867m, higher than the expected £853m.

Retail EBIT followed suit at £98m compared to a forecast of £95m.

Online sales were another highlight, bringing in £1.6bn, just above the £1.5bn forecast.

The online division’s EBIT, at £265m, came in as expected. The finance division achieved sales of £150m with EBIT of £97m, well above RBC’s estimate of £84m.

However, Total Platform, a business that supports other brands through logistics and technology, missed forecasts, reporting profits of £23m.

“​​Full price sales growth for the first 6 weeks of Q3 is up +6.9% versus our estimate of +4% y-o-y,” RBC analysts said.

This prompted Next to revise up its second-half sales growth forecast, now targeting 3.7% year-on-year growth, up from its previous estimate of 2.5%.

RBC analysts believe Next’s omnichannel strength and efficient logistics network will continue to be major assets as the retailer navigates the challenging retail environment.

“(Next) has the potential to grow its high yield Total Platform business for other brands to leverage its strong systems and online warehousing and distribution. However, this is likely to add complexity to the business and will bring with it some M&A risk,” RBC said.