Mark Erceg
Analyst · JPMorgan
Thanks, Chris. Good morning, everyone. First quarter 2026 net and core sales declined versus a year ago by 1.1% and 3.5%, respectively, with 2.7 points of favorable foreign exchange and 0.3 points of exits and other impacts accounting for the difference between net and core. Normalized gross margin in the first quarter expanded by 70 basis points to 33.2%. Gross productivity and favorable net pricing actions more than offset cost inflation, tariff costs and lower volume. Normalized overhead dollars were slightly lower year-over-year as we continue to execute against the previously announced global productivity plan. During Q1, we recorded $6 million of restructuring charges, bringing cumulative charges under the plan to $46 million. We continue to expect total restructuring and restructuring-related charges associated with the plan of approximately $75 million to $90 million, the rest of which should be largely incurred by the end of 2026. As expected, A&P as a percentage of sales was just north of 5%, which was about 30 basis points higher than a year ago as we continue to invest behind the strongest innovation program Newell has fielded since at least the Jarden acquisition. All of this brought Newell's normalized operating margin in at 4.8%, which was 30 basis points above a year ago and ahead of our expectations. As Chris indicated, we did record approximately $25 million of net pricing benefit, which flowed through the balance of our first quarter P&L due to a refinement of estimates related to customer programs, reflecting better claims experience and improved deduction management. This benefit contributed about 160 basis points to core sales growth and about 110 basis points to our gross margin rate for the quarter. In English, this means that the work we have been doing to generate a better return on our annual invoice to net investment in the U.S. of roughly $1 billion is starting to pay off. That work began several years ago with Ovid, which consolidated 23 separate U.S.-based legal entities into one go-to-market organization. It has subsequently continued with the implementation of a customer trade fund management system and improved deduction management software. Going forward, we will continue to strive to improve the return characteristics of our customer programs, which may actually result in more trade fund dollars being invested, but in a more efficient and optimal manner than in the past. Net interest expense of $84 million represented an increase of $12 million from the prior year, and we reported a 0 normalized effective tax rate on the quarter. The combination of all these factors resulted in a normalized $0.05 loss on diluted earnings per share, which was ahead of the guidance we provided during our last earnings call. From a cash standpoint, operating cash was an outflow of $233 million versus an operating cash outflow of $213 million in the year ago period. Please note that Q1 historically is always the smallest quarter of the year due to seasonality, so this cash performance is not unusual or unexpected. Our net leverage ratio for the quarter was approximately 5.4x based on net debt of $4.8 billion and trailing 12-month normalized EBITDA of $881 million. This compares to approximately 5.3x in Q1 of 2025 when we had $4.7 billion of net debt and $884 million trailing 12-month normalized EBITDA. Having covered first quarter results and before providing our full year and second quarter outlook, let's take a few minutes to discuss commodity costs and tariff impacts in a bit more detail. Following the start of Operation Epic Fury, oil, using WTI as the benchmark, increased from a pre-conflict average of about $60 to $65 a barrel to a peak of $113 before retrenching slightly. This directly impacts Newell in 2 ways. As indicated earlier, resin purchases represented about 5% of 2025 total company cost of goods sold and the price of polyethylene and polypropylene are directly tied to the price of oil. Using polyethylene as an example, because it represents more than 50% of our total resin use, the average price we paid during the first quarter was very comparable to the prior year. However, for the balance of the year, we are currently assuming the cost per pound will be up about 40% versus a year ago and about 40% higher than what we paid during the first quarter of 2026. The second way the price of oil directly impacts Newell is inbound and outbound freight, which represents about 3% of 2025 total company cost of goods sold. In this case, the average price of a gallon of diesel during the first quarter of 2026 was about $4, which was up a modest 3% versus a year ago. That has changed rapidly, of course, and we are now assuming diesel will average about $5 per gallon for the balance of the year with the price peaking during Q2 before gradually tapering off throughout the second half of the year. Because resin is an input component that gets converted into finished goods and is subsequently inventoriable, the incremental P&L impact is expected to be weighted more towards the back half of the year, whereas since diesel and bunker fuel is essentially expensed as incurred, often in the form of a fuel surcharge, they have a more immediate effect on the P&L. To boil all this down and based on the assumptions we are currently using, commodities and transportation are now expected to add about $50 million of incremental cost to 2026 versus our original budget. But that is likely to change. So from a sensitivity standpoint, we can offer you the following. All else being equal, every $5 move in the per barrel price of oil up or down equates to about $5 million of either incremental cost, which we would develop plans to offset or benefit, which we could choose to reinvest or drop to the bottom line. It is also worth noting that there is some good news because while commodity costs have risen meaningfully, we expect about half of this negative impact to be directly offset by lower tariff costs. Recall that during 2025, we incurred $115 million or $0.23 per share of new tariff-related P&L charges, $0.02 in the second quarter, $0.11 in the third and $0.10 in the fourth. At the start of 2026, we expected to incur $146 million or $0.30 per share of comparable tariff-related P&L charges. Those charges were forecasted to present themselves as follows: $0.065 in each of the first and second quarters, $0.09 in the third quarter and $0.08 in the fourth quarter. As we stand here today, with all the changes we are aware of and with the key assumption that when the current 10% Section 122 tariffs expire, they are replaced by some combination of new tariffs that on average carry a 15% effective rate, we now expect to incur $120 million or $0.24 per share of P&L tariff-related costs, which is $26 million or $0.06 per share better than originally expected. To help complete your models, our estimated 2026 P&L tariff impact is $0.10 in Q1, $0.07 in Q2, $0.05 in Q3 and $0.03 in Q4, all of which is off by $0.01 due to rounding. Finally, to wrap this section up, please note 3 things. First, I just stated that the Q1 2026 P&L impact from these tariffs was $0.10, and our original estimate was $0.065. Q1's tariff impact ended up higher than expected, but that was primarily a function of sales coming in stronger than planned for certain tariff-impacted categories. In other words, we sold more inventory than anticipated in these categories, which brought forward tariff costs that have been held in inventory at the end of last year. Second, with respect to the potential IEEPA tariff refund we are entitled to, we are accounting for this under a loss recovery model. Under that framework, a receivable can only be recorded when recovery is both probable and reasonably estimable. As of March 31, we did not record a receivable given remaining uncertainties, including the appeals process and implementation of the refund process itself. Thus, our current earnings and operating cash flow outlook does not include any impact from potential IEEPA tariff refunds, including refunds related to approximately $120 million of IEEPA tariffs paid in 2025. Third, while there is a gap between the incremental commodity hurt we expect to incur and the incremental tariff help we now anticipate, plans are in place to make up the balance through a combination of gross productivity, disciplined cost management actions and where necessary, select and targeted net pricing actions. Turning to our outlook and based on our first quarter overdelivery and projected sales growth over the balance of the year, we are raising our full year estimates for net sales, core sales and normalized earnings per share. Specifically, net sales are now expected to be between flat and positive 2% compared with our previous expectation of negative 1% to positive 1% and core sales are now expected to be between negative 1% and positive 1% compared with our prior expectation of negative 2% to flat. The outlook for normalized operating margin remains unchanged at 8.6% to 9.2%. We continue to expect an effective tax rate in the high teens and the bottom end of our normalized diluted earnings per share range has been increased by $0.02, bringing the range to $0.56 to $0.60 versus $0.54 to $0.60. From a cash standpoint, as previously disclosed, Newell Brands decided to terminate its U.S. nonqualified defined benefit plans. These were specialized nonqualified plans for certain participating former senior executives and are separate from our broad-based employee benefit programs. As part of the process, we are liquidating the associated life insurance assets. And as a result, Newell expects to generate an incremental $60 million of cash by the end of the year, which will be recognized as cash from investing activities. Given this additional cash infusion, we have been leaning in on inventory purchases to bring in more inventory at what we believe will ultimately be lower tariff rates and to ensure adequacy of supply as business trends improve. Consistent with this, while we are leveraging our operating cash -- we are leaving our operating cash flow range for the full year at $350 million to $400 million, we now expect to be towards the lower end of that range. CapEx is still being planned against a $200 million budget for 2026 versus a historical run rate of about $250 million, now that several large ERP integrations and supply chain projects have been successfully completed, and we continue to have plans to reduce our year-end leverage ratio by about half a turn. For the second quarter of 2026, we expect both net and core sales to be flat to up 2% behind consumer-relevant innovation, net distribution gains and higher levels of A&P support. Normalized operating margin is projected to be between 9.6% and 10.2% and normalized diluted earnings per share is projected to be in the range of $0.16 to $0.19. Please note that second quarter normalized operating margin and normalized earnings per share include approximately $25 million of incremental year-over-year tariff costs, considerably higher diesel costs and an expected year-over-year increase in advertising and promotional support, both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of sales. In closing, first quarter results were better than planned across all key metrics, with all 3 segments delivering core sales above our expectations. While we continue to face a dynamic cost and tariff environment, the capabilities we have built and the agility and dedication of the Newell team gives us the confidence to raise our full year outlook for net sales, core sales and normalized EPS while maintaining our operating margin outlook as we continue to prioritize cash generation and deleveraging as we seek to fully unlock the value of Newell's portfolio of leading brands for our shareholders. Operator, we'll now open the call to questions.