Key Takeaways

Estée Lauder ( EL ) shares tumbled 17% Tuesday to lead S&P 500 decliners as the beauty products maker reported a surprise quarterly loss and weak guidance, and announced it was slashing jobs as sales lagged.

The cosmetics giant posted a fiscal 2025 second-quarter operating loss of $580 million, or $1.64 per share. Analysts surveyed by Visible Alpha were looking for a per-share profit of $0.26. Revenue fell 6% year-over-year to $4.0 billion, although that was a tick better than forecasts.

Skin Care segment sales sank 12% to $1.92 billion, and Makeup sales slipped 1% to $1.15 billion, mainly because of slowing demand in China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Hair Care sales were down 8% to $159 million on "continued softness in the Company's salon channel and the timing of shipments." The only segment to post a sales gain was Fragrance, which added 1% to $744 million.

CEO Stéphane de La Faverie said Estée Lauder was launching a new strategic plan called "Beauty Reimagined," aimed at "significantly transforming our operating model to be leaner, faster, and more agile, while taking decisive actions to expand consumer coverage, step-change innovation, and increase consumer-facing investments to better capture growth and drive profitability."

As part of the move, the company will shake up the executive suite and lay off 5,800 to 7,000 employees.

Company Sees 'Continued Volatility' in Near Term

Estée Lauder also warned that with "challenges in the Company's Asia travel retail business, subdued consumer sentiment in China and Korea, and evolving global geopolitical uncertainty, the Company anticipates continued volatility and low visibility in the near term." It sees current-quarter adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.20 to $0.30, with revenue falling 10% to 12%. Visible Alpha estimates were for $0.62 and a drop of almost 7%, respectively.

Shares of Estée Lauder have lost about half their value in the past year.

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