By Robb M. Stewart

Battery giant Energizer Holdings warned of a soft start to its new fiscal year and a temporary squeeze from tariff costs, before the pace of earnings growth is expected to pick up.

It comes after the St. Louis, Mo., manufacturer behind brands including Energizer, Eveready and Rayovac logged weaker-than-expected underlying earnings in the final quarter of fiscal 2025.

In premarket trading, Energizer's shares were down 13%. The stock had already fallen 32% so far this year, last closing at $23.85.

Energizer recorded a drop in fourth-quarter net earnings to $34.9 million, or 50 cents a share, from $47.6 million, or 65 cents, a year earlier. The result was held back by a $5.9 million impairment charge on certain proprietary formulas the company no longer plans to use.

On an adjusted basis, per-share earnings came in at $1.05, missing the $1.12 analysts polled by FactSet had expected.

Sales for three months to Sept. 30 rose 3.4% from last year to $832.8 million despite a rise in the cost of products sold. Still, Energizer said organic sales volumes for the quarter fell 2.2% as volumes declined due to softer consumer demand, primarily in North America. Partially offsetting the volume declines was a slight rise in pricing, it said.

"As we begin fiscal 2026, we are operating through a period of transition, with the first quarter more heavily affected by temporary tariff costs and mitigation efforts," Chief Executive Mark LaVigne said.

The company projected organic sales for the year will be flat to slightly higher in both its batteries and lights and auto-care segments, while its gross margin is expected to modestly decline as the affect of tariffs are expected to be largely offset through pricing, production credits and productivity initiatives

Adjusted earnings per share for the full year are forecast to be between $3.30 to $3.60 and the company said the pace for the fiscal year will be influenced by a challenging sales comparison and transitory costs. It said that following the first quarter, it expects to generate double-digit adjusted earnings per share growth over the remainder of the year.

Analysts had been targeting per-share earnings for the new year of about $3.72 on sales of $3.04 billion.

For the fiscal first quarter, Energizer forecasts organic sales will decline by high-single digits and adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of 20 cents to 30 cents.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 18, 2025 07:38 ET (12:38 GMT)

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