Newell Brands reports Q4 sales beat, but shares fall on soft outlook

By James Rogers

The consumer goods company acknowledged a "challenging macro-economic backdrop"

Shares of Newell Brands Inc. fell 0.6% in premarket trades Friday after the consumer goods company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and sales but gave soft full-year outlook.

The company, whose brands include Rubbermaid, Sharpie, Graco and Yankee Candle reported a net loss of $86 million, or a loss of 21 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $249 million, or a loss of 60 cents a share, in the prior year's quarter.

On an adjusted basis, Newell Brands (NWL) earned 22 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for earnings of 17 cents a share. Newell Brands' sales were $2.08 billion, a decline of 9% from the prior year's quarter, but topped the $1.98 billion FactSet forecast. The company's sales decline reflected a core sales decrease of 9.3%, Newell Brands said.

Related: Newell Brands to cut office staff by 7% by the end of the year

"We dramatically improved the underlying structural economics of the business during the fourth quarter, as both gross margin and operating margin expanded significantly versus last year," said Newell Brands CFO Mark Erceg, in a statement. "In addition, full year operating cash flow was very strong, increasing by $1.2 billion to $930 million, which allowed us to reduce debt by about $500 million."

"We remain confident that despite a challenging macro-economic backdrop, the significant investments we are making to augment our core capabilities and accelerate our business transformation will allow us to fully operationalize our new corporate strategy and strengthen the company's performance going forward," Erceg added.

For 2024, Newell Brands expects net sales between $7.45 billion and $7.7 billion, and adjusted earnings of 52 cents to 62 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet are looking for full-year sales of $7.7 billion and earnings of 77 cents a share.

Related: Newell Brands stock tumbles toward a 14-year low after revenue miss, downbeat outlook

Newell Brands shares have fallen 42.8% in the last 52 weeks, compared with the S&P 500 index's gain of 22.2%.

-James Rogers

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02-09-24 0816ET

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