Newell Brands announced its first quarter 2025 financial results, reporting net sales of $1.6 billion, a 5.3% decline year-over-year, with core sales decreasing by 2.1%. The company reported a normalized diluted loss per share of $0.01, which was better than analyst expectations of a $0.06 loss.
Normalized gross margin expanded by 150 basis points to 32.5% compared to the prior year, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year improvement. Normalized operating income was $71 million, or 4.5% of sales, down from $79 million, or 4.8% of sales, in Q1 2024.
Operating cash outflow for the quarter was $213 million, compared to a cash flow of $32 million in the prior year period, primarily due to working capital changes. The company affirmed its full-year 2025 net sales, operating margin, and EPS guidance, but updated its core sales outlook.
The full-year 2025 core sales are now expected to decline between 3% and 1%, a more pessimistic view compared to the previous range of a 2% decline to a 1% increase. This adjustment is attributed to a more cautious outlook on category growth, now anticipated to be down approximately 1% to 2% in 2025.
Newell Brands also widened its full-year 2025 operating cash flow outlook to a range of $400 million to $500 million, from the prior range of $450 million to $500 million, due to higher tariff costs on inventory. The company expects to fully offset existing tariffs but noted that the additional 125% China tariff could negatively impact 2025 normalized EPS by approximately $0.10 after implementing mitigating actions.
For the second quarter 2025, Newell Brands initiated an outlook expecting net sales and core sales to decline between 5% and 3%. Normalized operating margin is projected to be 10.4% to 10.8%, with normalized diluted EPS expected between $0.21 and $0.24.
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