Estée Lauder Says the Turnaround Is Real, and Fragrance Is Carrying It

Estée Lauder wants you to believe the turnaround is finally real, and for once the numbers backed up the talking point. The beauty giant's fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings came in at 72 cents a share against a 51-cent estimate, on net sales of $3.72 billion, up 7 percent and above the $3.64 billion Wall Street expected. Organic sales rose 6 percent, and the company raised its full-year guidance on nearly every metric that matters: organic growth, adjusted EPS, and operating margin all moved higher. Shares jumped more than 5 percent in premarket trading.

Fragrance did the heavy lifting, growing 20 percent organically on the strength of Le Labo, TOM FORD, and Jo Malone London, while skincare grew a steadier 4 percent, helped by continued momentum at The Ordinary. Adjusted operating margin expanded nearly five points to 12.1 percent. CEO Stéphane de La Faverie put it plainly: "Growth is accelerating, profitability is strengthening significantly."

The company raised its fiscal 2027 outlook across the board, now projecting organic sales growth of 4 percent to 5.5 percent and adjusted EPS of $3.20 to $3.45. For a company that spent the last few years explaining away soft quarters in China and a shrinking travel-retail business, a beat-and-raise quarter led by niche fragrance brands rather than its flagship name is the clearest signal yet that the playbook de La Faverie inherited is starting to work on its own terms.

Source: Yahoo Finance

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →