On Holding reported second-quarter revenue of CHF 850.3 million, up 21.6% in constant currency, against a consensus near CHF 881.4 million. Earnings of CHF 0.31 per share beat the CHF 0.29 estimate. Direct-to-consumer sales rose 34.3% in constant currency. Gross margin expanded to 65.4%, an improvement of 3.9 percentage points.
The stock closed down 20.29% at $30.91 — the steepest single-day decline since the 2021 listing — at a two-year low.
The quarter
| Metric | Q2 2026 | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | CHF 850.3M | +21.6% cc, missed CHF 881.4M |
| EPS | CHF 0.31 | beat CHF 0.29 |
| Gross margin | 65.4% | +3.9 points year over year |
| DTC growth | +34.3% cc | beat in every region |
| FY26 growth guidance | low 20s% cc | cut from at least 23% |
| Year to date | −34% |
The market did not punish the quarter
Read the table again. Margins up almost four points. Direct channel up a third. Earnings ahead. On most days that is a good print.
What the market repriced was one sentence: full-year growth is now expected in the low-20% range, down from at least 23%. A company that spent three years being the fastest premium brand in athletic footwear told the market that the number is smaller than promised, three quarters into the year.
That is the difference between a miss and a re-rating. A miss costs you a quarter of earnings. A guidance cut costs you the multiple, because the multiple was the growth rate.
What 65.4% gross margin is telling you
Here is the tension that makes this interesting rather than simply bad.
Gross margin at 65.4% and DTC growth of 34.3% describe a brand with pricing power selling more of its product at full price through its own channels. That is not the profile of a business losing its customer. It is the profile of a business deliberately shifting mix — away from wholesale, toward stores and its own site, where it keeps the margin and owns the relationship.
Mix shifts like that suppress headline revenue growth while improving the quality of it. Wholesale sell-in books revenue in lumps; DTC books it one pair at a time. If that is what happened here, the guidance cut is arithmetic from a strategy, not evidence of demand failure.
The bear reading is simpler and cannot be dismissed: the category is normalising, competitors have caught up on the technical story, and 21.6% is what growth looks like now.
How I read it
Both readings fit today's numbers. The one that resolves them is regional DTC growth over the next two quarters — specifically whether North America keeps compounding while wholesale shrinks.
At a 34% drawdown, the price no longer assumes 23% growth. That is the honest attraction here: you are being paid to take the deceleration debate rather than being asked to fund it.
What I would not do is treat one day of −20% as the whole adjustment. Growth companies that reset guidance mid-year tend to reset again; the market knows it, and it prices the possibility for several quarters. I want to see one guidance number held, not raised, before I call the reset finished.
The risk I would underwrite carefully: gross margin at 65.4% is now doing a lot of the work in this story. If promotional pressure takes even two points out of it while growth is in the low 20s, the equity case gets much harder.