By Sam Boughedda
Newell Brands (NASDAQ:NWL) shares are down more than 6% premarket Friday after the company's first quarter and full-year guidance disappointed investors.
In the fourth quarter, the commercial products manufacturer and distributor reported an 18.5% decline in net sales to $2.3 billion. However, this beat consensus estimates of $2.23B. Meanwhile, earnings per share also exceeded expectations, coming in at $0.16, $0.05 better than the analyst consensus estimate of $0.11.
Newell's revenue drop was due to a core sales decline of 9.4%, the impact of the sale of the CH&S business at the end of the first quarter of 2022, unfavorable foreign exchange, and category and retail store exits.
"Fourth quarter results were in line with our expectations and brought to a close a difficult second half," said Ravi Saligram, Newell Brands CEO. "The business continued to be impacted by a tough operating environment, including slowing consumer demand for general merchandise categories, as well as inventory reductions at retail."
However, it is the company's guidance that has weighed on its share price, with Newell's stating that it sees a Q1 loss per share between $0.06 and $0.03 versus the consensus of $0.23, with revenue in the quarter expected to be between $1.79B and $1.84B, versus the consensus of $2.04B.
In addition, for the full year, Newell's expects earnings from $0.95 to $1.08 per share, versus the consensus of $1.42, with revenue between $8.4B and $8.6B, versus the consensus of $9.08B.