Newell Brands Inc (NASDAQ:NWL) struck a downbeat tone for 2026 despite delivering fourth-quarter earnings in line with expectations and slightly stronger-than-forecast revenue, sending its shares down sharply.
The consumer goods group’s stock fell about 9.3% in premarket trading after the update. Newell reported normalized earnings of $0.18 per share for the fourth quarter, matching analyst estimates, while revenue came in at $1.9 billion, just above the $1.88 billion consensus.
Beneath the headline numbers, however, performance was softer. Core sales declined 4.1% year on year during the quarter, raising concerns about underlying demand trends across the portfolio, which includes brands such as Rubbermaid, Sharpie and Coleman.
For full-year 2026, Newell guided to normalized earnings of between $0.54 and $0.60 per share, broadly in line with the Street’s $0.58 midpoint estimate. The company expects net sales to range from a 1% decline to 1% growth, while core sales are forecast to be flat at best or fall by as much as 2%.
“Despite a fluid and challenging macroeconomic environment, our team executed well, and we exited 2025 a stronger and more resilient company,” said Chris Peterson, Newell Brands’ President and Chief Executive Officer.
“While we are not assuming an improvement in underlying category demand this year, we expect our strong innovation plans, higher levels of advertising and promotion, and an increase in points of distribution for the first time since the Jarden acquisition, to enable us to outgrow our categories and gain market share.”
Operationally, the company showed some progress. Fourth-quarter normalized operating margin improved to 8.7%, up from 7.1% a year earlier, reflecting the impact of restructuring initiatives and productivity improvements.
Investors, however, appeared unsettled by Newell’s outlook for the start of 2026. The company forecast a normalized loss of $0.08 to $0.12 per share for the first quarter, overshadowing the margin improvement reported for the fourth quarter.
Chief financial officer Mark Erceg highlighted cost pressures and mitigation efforts, saying: “For the full year and despite incurring $174 million and $114 million of gross cash and P&L tariff impacts, respectively, normalized operating margin expanded including a 50-basis-point increase in advertising and promotion investment.”
Looking at cash generation, Newell expects operating cash flow of $350 million to $400 million in 2026, which would represent an increase of more than 40% compared with 2025 at the midpoint of the range.