By Kelly Cloonan
Coty swung to a loss in its latest quarter and withdrew its fiscal-year guidance as trends in its consumer beauty business weaken.
The house of beauty and fragrance brands on Thursday posted a loss of $126.9 million, or 14 cents a share, compared with a profit of $20.4 million, or 2 cents a share, a year earlier.
Adjusted earnings per share were 14 cents, below estimates of 18 cents a share according to analysts polled by FactSet.
The recent earnings figures were dented by an equity swap mark-to-market of 4 cents, the company said.
Revenue rose 1% to $1.68 billion, topping analyst estimates of $1.66 billion. Excluding effects from foreign exchange, revenue declined 3%.
Sales in Coty's prestige business, which includes brands like Kylie Cosmetics and fragrances by Gucci and Marc Jacobs, recorded a 2% rise in sales. In its consumer beauty segment, which includes drugstore brands like CoverGirl, Sally Hansen and Rimmel, revenue declined 2% in the quarter.
Interim Chief Executive Markus Strobel said the company's financial performance over the past year and a half has been disappointing.
"We have not been delivering at the level we should," he said.
Going forward, the company is working on more focused investments, improving execution and putting more support behind its core businesses. It is also continuing a strategic review of its portfolio, he said.
For the fiscal year, the company withdrew its prior guidance for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and free cash flow, citing a complex beauty market backdrop and its leadership transition.
For the fiscal third quarter, Coty guided for revenue to decline by a mid-single-digit percentage on a like-for-like basis, primarily due to weaker consumer beauty sales trends, the company said.
Write to Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 05, 2026 17:38 ET (22:38 GMT)
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