PERRIGO Co plc (PRGO) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Perigo third quarter 2026 financial results conference call. At this time, our lines are in listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Wednesday, November 4, 2026. I would like to conference over to Eric Jacobson, Vice President, Global Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Parago's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. A copy of the release we issued today and the accompanying presentation are available within the investors section of the Parago.com website. Joining today's call are Parago's Interim President and CEO, Albert Manzoni, and CFO, Eduardo Bezzera. As a reminder, we recently announced an agreement to divest our infant formula business. Beginning with the fourth quarter and full year 2026 reporting, the infant formula business will be reported as discontinued operations. Accordingly, the company's all-in outlook no longer includes infant formula. The company's core outlook continues to exclude infant formula and previously announced divestitures. During this presentation, participants will make certain forward-looking statements. Please refer to the slides for information regarding these statements, which are subject to important risks and uncertainties. We will reference adjusted financial measures that are non-GAAP in nature. See the appendix to the earnings presentation for additional details and reconciliations of all non-GAAP-to-GAAP financial measures presented. Moving to the agenda, Albert will begin with his perspective on Perigo and the priorities he has identified. He will then discuss our third-quarter performance, progress against the 3S plan, and the commercial opportunities he sees to drive stronger, more consistent growth. Eduardo will then provide a financial review and discuss our 2026 outlook. With that, I'll turn it over to Albert.

Thanks, Eric. Good morning, good afternoon, and thank you for joining today's call. Over my first five months at Perigo, I have spent a significant amount of time listening to our customers, our consumers, and our people, digging into the business and our capabilities, and developing a deeper understanding of what we do well and where we can be better. And I have been increasingly impressed. We have leading store brand products, strong brands. Attractive positions across our categories and a talented organization that knows the consumer self-care business exceptionally well. I want to thank our teams across Perigo for their hard work, commitment, and the way they have welcomed me. At the same time, it has become clear why those strengths have not translated consistently into the results we should be delivering. Over time, Perigo has become too complex. The business has not been integrated to the degree it needs to be, and that complexity has made it harder for our teams to execute with the necessary speed and focus. We're taking decisive action to simplify and strengthen Perigo, and that process is a major focus for me. That means being extremely deliberate about where we invest, the businesses and geographies where we play, and how we organize ourselves. We want our talented teams focused on the areas where Perigo has the greatest right to win and where we see the most attractive risk-adjusted returns. This work is underway, and you will hear throughout today's call how we're sharpening our focus, Simplifying the business and positioning Perigo to deliver more consistently over time. Looking at our key takeaways from the quarter. First, our free S plan is working. There is more to do, but operating performance improves sequentially and we are making progress in the areas we control. The sale of infant formula is an important step. It simplifies our portfolio and operations, improves our margin profile, reduces expected future capital expenditures, and allows us to focus our people and resources where we have the greatest right to win. And competitively, we gain share again in U.S. store brand OTC and across our key European brands. Category trends also continue to improve sequentially, even as the consumer environment remains challenging in certain areas. Finally, we have updated our 2026 outlook to reflect the infant formula divestment, more measured retailer inventory positioning ahead of the caffin cold season, and continued softness in Europe. While cap and cold incidence trends have shown early signs of improvements, retailers have taken a more measured approach to inventory. Eduardo will take you through the details later in the call, including the key drivers underlying our expectations for the balance of the year. Turning briefly to our third quarter financial results, as you can see. Our results continue to reflect some of the ongoing challenges we have discussed, including retailer inventory positioning and lower contract volumes. The key takeaway for me is straightforward. The areas we control are improving, even as external headwinds continue to wait on the reported results. You can see that more clearly in the sequential trends. Our operating performance has improved each quarter this year. The year-over-year decline in core net sales has moderated from 8.3% in the first quarter to 3.1% in the second quarter to 1.7% in the third quarter. At the same time, core adjusted operating margin continue to trend upward, increasing from 12.8% to 13.4% to 14.3%. That is meaningful progress. Category trends are improving, and the actions we're taking through our 3S plan are having an impact. Our job now is to build on it, continue simplifying Perigo, and translate that progress into more consistent results. In addition to the sequential improvement in our operating performance, we're seeing the category environment improve as well. As you can see, Consumption trends have strengthened from the beginning of the year in both the U.S. and Europe. In the U.S., category volume returned to modest growth in the third quarter, while in Europe, consumer trends remain soft, but the rate of decline continues to improve sequentially, and so is our execution. Turning now to the details of our recent progress. Under Stabilize, Operations are becoming more consistent and service is improving, which is strengthening our relationships and increasing collaboration with our retail customers. Under Streamline, we're making clear choices about where Perigo should compete. We have sold Derma Cosmetics and announced the investment of infant formula while continuing the strategic review of oral care, and we're taking costs out. Our operational enhancement program has generated $42 million of savings year-to-date and remains on track to deliver approximately $60 to $80 million in 2026. Under Strengthen, we are putting more investment behind innovation, demand generation, and the parts of the portfolio where we see the greatest opportunity. And we're seeing the results in our share performance in U.S. store brand OTC and across our key European brands. As we simplify Perigo, we can enhance our focus on driving growth. These are three areas where I see clear opportunities. First, innovation. We're directing innovation resources on categories where we have a right to win and where differentiated products can create meaningful value for consumers and customers. Second, distribution. Store brand is a core Perigot strength, and we have opportunities to put more of our products in front of more consumers. That includes e-commerce, Our market share is already higher than in the total market. I will come back to that shortly. Third, demand generation. We're investing behind the brands, products, and customer programs where we believe we can generate attractive returns. That means stronger customer partnerships and more effective consumer engagement. The objective is simple. Gain, share, and outgrow our categories. Let me bring some of those growth building blocks to life with a few examples. In store brands, we continue to find new ways to support consumers and create value for our retail partners. Our GLP-1 activation is a good example. Where we're positioning our digestive health portfolio to support consumers along their GLP-1 journey, while deepening our strategic relationship with customers. Importantly, initiatives like this one shift more of our business into faster-growing parts of the category. At the same time, our investments behind key brands are translating into strong growth and share performance. COMPEDE, OPEAL, LA1, Central Formula, all deliver growth and gain share, demonstrating the opportunity we have when we put focused investment behind differentiated brands. These examples demonstrate the strengths of both sides of Perigo. We have a differentiated store brand portfolio and brands with meaningful growth opportunities. As I mentioned earlier, e-commerce is a particularly attractive opportunity for Perigo. The channel is growing faster than the broader category, and our share in e-commerce is higher than our share of the total market. That matters. As more consumer purchasing moves online, we should benefit to a greater extent. And we're seeing it already. U.S. e-commerce total category volume is up nearly 15% year-to-date, and e-commerce now represents 22% of our U.S. volume, up from approximately 13% in 2022. We have a strong position in a growing channel. Our job is to build on it. The clearest evidence that the free S plan is working is our share performance. In U.S., store-brand OTC, volume grew 2% in the quarter, and we gained 30 basis points of share. In Europe, value sales in our key brands grew 6.5%, well ahead of their categories, and gained 80 basis points of share. Those are important proof points. We have more opportunity in front of us, but where we are investing and executing well, we are winning. Let me close with where I am focused. We need to build on the share momentum. We're seeing and continue expanding access to high-quality, affordable self-care products. We need to keep simplifying Perigo. The sale of infant formula is an important step, and there is more to do. We need to strengthen the balance sheet and create greater financial flexibility. To ensure our capital allocation framework remains aligned with our strategy and market opportunities, we regularly review the most effective uses of capital across growth investments, debt reduction, and shoulder returns, including assessing the dividend on a quarterly basis. And we need to deliver. We have work ahead of us, but I believe we have the portfolio, the capabilities, and the people to do it. With that, I will turn it over to Eduardo to walk through the financial results in more detail.

Thank you, Albert. I appreciate everyone joining us today. Other than for references to net sales, my comments will focus on adjusted non-GAAP results, unless otherwise noted. Turning to our Q3 results, starting with the top line. Core net sales declined 1.7% year-over-year, while core organic net sales declined 1.1%. Importantly, as Albert highlighted, this marks another quarter of sequential improvement, reflecting both continued execution of our 3S plan and improving category trends across several of our key markets. Third quarter results continue to reflect a softer consumption environment. The softness, which was particularly evident in our European business, contributed to more measured retailer inventory positioning ahead of the cough and cold season within the self-care segment. These factors represented approximately a 2% point headwind to growth. Lower contract manufacturing volumes created an additional headwind of roughly 1% point. Encouragingly, our growth-building initiatives continued to gain traction, offsetting a meaningful portion of those pressures. Innovation and market share growth contributed approximately 1.5 percentage points of growth during the quarter. While the external environment remained challenging, these actions reinforced our confidence in the underlying trajectory of the business. Within self-care, net sales decreased 3.2%. The decline was concentrated in upper respiratory and pain and sleep categories, where software consumption contributed to more measured retailer inventory positioning. Lower contract manufacturing volumes also weighted on results. These factors were partially offset by growth in healthy lifestyle, supported by continued share gains in store-brand nicotine replacement, and in digestive health, where store-brand laxity volumes increased. Specialty care net sales decreased 4.6%. Thank you. Women's health continued to perform well, led by share gains and solid momentum in Ella 1, along with continued growth from appeal. Within skin health, Compete and Jungle Formula delivered strong in-season performance, but that growth was more than offset by lower store brand and contract-manufactured minoxidil sales and lower maderma sales. On an all-in basis, net sales were $989 million, down 5.2%. In addition to the core drivers I just discussed, all-in results also reflected the impact of divestures and lower infant formula sales, which together represented a 3.2% ad win. Infant formula net sales decreased 9.6%, as growth in store-brand formula was more than offset by lower contract volumes, including the timing of certain shipments that were recorded in the second quarter. Currency translation was a headwind of half percentage points. Now to adjusted operating income. Self-care adjusted operating income decreased $25 million, or 19.4%. The decline was driven primarily by lower sales, particularly in our higher-margin European business, which resulted in unfavorable mix along with increased advertising and promotional investment. Benefits from the operational enhancement program partially offset those pressures. Specialty care adjusted operating income decreased $10 million, or 24.2%. Reflecting unfavorable mix in skin health and higher advertising and promotion investment across the segment. These investments continue to support the consumer programs and innovation activity Albert discussed, while operational enhancement program savings provided a partial offset. Infant formula adjusted operating income decreased by approximately $15 million and was likely negative in the quarter. Lower sales and gross profit flow-through, including planted under-absorption, were partially offset by lower operating expenses. Within all order, adjusted operating income increased approximately $4 million, or 18.4%. Results benefited from the recognition of a recovery of a portion of previously paid tariffs, along with improved productivity and lower operating expenses in oral care. Those benefits more than offset the impact of divestures. Corporate expenses improved modestly year-over-year, reflecting continued cost discipline and benefits from the operational enhancement program, partially offset by the normalization of variable employee compensation. Turning to margins, the drivers were consistent with the segment results I just revealed. Core-adjusted gross margin declined 140 basis points to 37.9%, driven by lower net sales volumes and unfavorable mix from lower sales in our higher-margin European business, partially offset by the benefit of Paris and the contribution from continued market share gains. Core-adjusted operating margin decreased 210 basis points to 14.3%. In addition to the gross margin pressure, operating expenses increased primarily due to the higher advertising promotion investment and the normalization of variable employing compensation. That increase was partially offset by operational enhancement program benefits of $19 million. All-in adjusted gross margin declined 370 basis points to 36.3%, reflecting the core drivers as well as the impact of divestures and lower infant formula gross margin, including planted under absorption. All-in adjusted operating margin decreased 360 basis points to 13.1%, reflecting those same items and the impact of infant formula and divestures. Third quarter core adjusted earnings per share was $0.61, down $0.06 from the prior year. Lower sales and operating income were partially offset by a lower adjusted effective tax rate. Changes in the jurisdictional mix of earnings reduced the adjusted effective tax rate to 3.5% and benefited core adjusted earnings per share by approximately $0.10 in the quarter. The Q3 tax rate benefit included a year-to-date catch-up to reflect the updated jurisdictional mix of earnings. All-in adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.60, down $0.20 from the prior year. In addition to the core drivers, all-in earnings per share reflected the impact of divestures and infant formula, including approximately $0.12 of unfavorable earnings per share impact from planned under absorption within infant formula. Turning to cash flow, third quarter of 2026, cash from operating activities was $96 million, in line with our expectations. Capital expenditures totaled $18 million, and we returned $40 million to shareholders through dividends. Turning to the balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents were $437 million, and total debt was $3.3 billion. Subsequent to quarter-end, we announced an agreement to divest the infant formula business. Net proceeds are expected to be deployed in line with our capital allocation priorities, including sustainable business growth, reducing total debt and net leverage, and maintaining a disciplined and balanced capital allocation framework. Turning to our outlook. As Eric mentioned at the beginning, going forward, the infant formula business will be presented as discontinued operations. Starting with core, we now expect reported net sales to decline 2.5 to 3.6 percent, with organic net sales declining 2.7 to 3.8 percent. We expect adjusted gross margin of 37.5% to 38.5%, adjusted operating margin of 14% to 15%, and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $2.15 to $2.35. For all-in, which now excludes infant formula but includes other divestures, we expect reported net sales to decline 4.6% to 5.7%. With infant formula now accounted for in discontinued operations, we expect a benefit to adjust the gross margin and operating margins compared to our previous all-in outlook. We now expect adjusted gross margin of 37.8% to 38.8% and adjusted operating margin of 14.3% to 15.3%. All in adjusted diluted earnings per share expected to be between $2.25 and $2.45. For both core and all-in, we assume net interest expense of approximately $162 million and adjusted affected tax rate of approximately 14% for the year and approximately $140 million diluted shares outstanding. We also expect year-end net leverage of approximately four times adjusted VITA. All-in cash from operating activities as a percentage of adjusted net income is expected to be in the low to mid 60% range. The change to our outlook reflects two primary factors, more measured retailer inventory position heading into the cough and cold season, and continuous softness in the European consumer environment. While cough and cold incidence trends have been tracking favorably early in the fourth quarter, retailers have taken a more conservative approach to inventory levels following two consecutive seasons of softer category volumes. As a result, we saw a lower retailer inventory build in the third quarter than previously assumed, which impacts our sales outlook despite encouraging early units and tracking channel consumption trends. In Europe, the consumer environment remains challenging and is tracking below our prior expectations. As a result, we believe it's prudent to take a more measured view for the balance of the year. Our operating assumptions continue to incorporate benefits from market share gains, innovation, distribution expansion, demand generation activities, and productivity benefits from our operational enhancement program. As we move into the fourth quarter, we remain focused on converting our market share gains and commercial investments into sales, managing costs with discipline, and executing against our updated outlook. While we remain mindful of the uncertain consumer environment and potential for variability in seasonal incident levels, we believe the actions we're taking position Perigo to exit 2026 as a simpler and more focused consumer self-care company. Before I turn the call to Eric, I want to thank our colleagues across Perigo for their continued focus, commitment, and diligent execution. Eric? Thank you, Eduardo.

Operator, we're now ready for questions.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Ladies and gentlemen, we now begin the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star, follow button number one on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered and you'd like to withdraw from the queue, please press star, follow button number two. And if you're using a speakerphone, please lift your hands up for pressing any keys. One moment, please, while we compile the raster. Your first question comes from Susan Anderson with Catacorn Genuity. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on the infant formula style. I guess now with that infant formula sold, maybe just looking bigger picture, I guess, how are you thinking about the strategy of the business? Has anything changed there? Is oral care still planned to be sold, and where are you at with that business? And then are there any other areas of the business that you think would make sense to divest? And then if there's just any update to your strategy for the store brands and branded part of the business, thanks.

Good morning, Susan. Thank you for the question. I hope you are well. And, listen, we're, as you say, satisfied with the sale of infant formula. With regard to oral care, the process is ongoing, and at this point, those are the two assets. That we are reviewing as a whole. What that means for us, as I said in my notes earlier, is really the ability to focus, simplify the company, and really focus on driving growth, improving our margins. And doing a discipline allocation of capital. This is, I think, from a strategic standpoint, a big opportunity that we do have. And I think over the coming quarters, you are going to see more of that. We're very satisfied with the market share gains that we're demonstrating and showing progress in the areas we control. With regard to this quarter, and we continue to look at continuing to do better going forward. Strategically, there are areas that I think are very promising. When you look at our sales performance, innovation, and focusing on innovation on where we get the best value for our brands, capturing the e-commerce opportunities, and as you have seen in the presentation, we have a higher market share in a category that is growing, and you're also already representing 20% of our sales in the U.S. So I think we're going to double down on that focus with the organization going forward.

Okay, great. And then maybe if I could just follow up on the market share gains in the quarter, I guess maybe if you could talk more specifically about the categories where you're gaining share, both in store brands and then separately in your branded business. I guess, are you seeing the gains across the entire portfolio or are there certain categories or brands where you're seeing the most market share gains? Thanks.

Yeah, great question. If you look at the U.S., we're doing well across most of the categories, and this is, as you know, we're putting a lot of focus on really building the business with the retailer. I talked to you at the last quarter, and this is part of sequential improvements, about improving our service levels to those retailers and, you know, with our key retailers who are 95 and above. And we are continuing to do that. That allows us, as I said earlier last quarter, to sit down with those retailers and co-innovate with them and also creating demand generation. And we do have a number of tests going on in terms of generating demand generations for the store brands. And so that growth is consistent across a little bit less on oral electrolytes and skin health, mostly there due to one brand, meloxidine. But on all the others, you are seeing progress. You are also seeing new opportunities, as, for example, we are bundling together digestive health for GLP-1 consumers. And we're rolling this out across a number of retailers as we speak. You know that we're gaining share within the store brands, but we also do see opportunities to gain share as the total store brand business on behalf of the retailers. This is something that they are interested to develop. This is something that I think the consumer is looking at. And as I was telling you earlier, when you look at e-commerce and when you look at the agents, You can imagine easily that an AI agent is at some point going to recommend a brand that costs a lot less, that has exactly the same FDA ingredients. So those are opportunities that we carry forward that allow us to gain share. And what you see in Europe is also share gains across. All are significant, I would say, bigger brands, and so there we're doing well. We need to make sure that we support more broadly some of the other brands, and we have sometimes in Europe a leaky bucket, and this is an area of focus of mine, going into some of those brands which have potential with a little bit of support, And so that market share trend and overall position in Europe can continue to grow as we go forward.

Okay, great. Thanks for all the details there. Good luck the rest of the year.

Thank you. Thank you, Susan. Your next question comes from Chris Scott with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Hi, this is Ethan on for Chris Scott. Thanks for taking our questions, and congrats on the quarter. Just starting off, as we look maybe to 2027 and given the number of moving pieces in the business, How are you thinking about the key pushes and pulls? As part of that, can you quantify the benefit from the tariff reversal this quarter?

Yes, good morning, Ethan. As you may guess, I'm going to be talking less about 2027, and you will hear more about this in the next quarter. But let me maybe give you some of the positives as I look at 27 and some of the watchouts. I think on the positive side, you are going to see an improving of the absorption on OTC, which, as you remember, was negatively impacted the first half of 2026. You are going to continue to see operational enhancement programs, which we are working on and feel comfortable about, and we are continuing, you are going to see the margin improvement from the divestment of infant formula in 2027. The watch out, and I shouldn't surprise you there, is that obviously the derma cosmetics divestiture has taken place. You will see a normalization of the tax rate, which, as you know, has been positive this year due to the jurisdictions where it took place. The one-time benefits on the tariffs is going to go away, and we continue to see, of course, inflationary pressure, and those will be coming still in 2027. Together with that, we are going to make sure, as I have said in my opening statement, that we invest where it does matter, behind our brands, behind innovation, demand generation. The key for us is going to grow the business next year, and that's what we intend to do.

And, Ethan, regarding your question on Paris, so for Q3, the benefit of Paris was about $4.5 million, okay?

Perfect. That's super helpful. And then one other question from me would just be following the impact or following the infant formula divestiture, how are you thinking about kind of the company's broader cash flow going forward and maybe in particular the magnitude of impact on CapEx that this divestiture will have?

Yeah, Ethan. Edward, do you want to take this one?

Yeah. So, Ethan, I think there are a couple of things there. First, as we mentioned when we set guidance this year, that infant formula was consuming cash because of the performance of this year. So, I think with this divestment, we removed that uncertainty. And also, as you remember, a couple of years ago, we mentioned that we would make significant investment to optimize our overall network and footprint. You know, at that time, we announced, you know, potentially $240 million. We did a small portion of those investments of the past two years to make sure we kept the operations ongoing and finalized some of the previous, you know, committed investments. But there's going to be a significant reduction on our capital requirements going forward. So the positive on that side is we're going to be able to shift the focus to our core OTC business, right? So as we see opportunities on investing in different areas that, you know, we believe are going to bring us a better potential return and more aligned with our ongoing core strategy.

Great. Thank you guys so much for the questions, and congrats again on the quarter.

Thank you, Ethan. Thank you, Ethan. Your next question comes from Daniel Bielsi with Hedgeye. Please go ahead.

Hi, Machado Rodriguez on for Daniel. Thanks for taking the question. So you highlighted more cautious inventory positioning ahead of cough and cold season. And just to clarify, are retailers actively reducing inventories again, or are they just simply not rebuilding ahead of the season?

Yes, thank you for the question. Good one. I would say that going Q3, we didn't see the retailer, as you said. It's the second piece of your assumption. They didn't load it for the season as they could have done or they did in the past. The season has start. Seems to be moving more into the year as, you know, climate change and so on and so forth. And so that's what you have seen. So as a result, as far as we're concerned, we continue to see a season that should be better than last year, but maybe not as high as originally estimated. That being said, I think it's too early to tell because as we talk, the climate is getting colder. More people are getting sick. We saw some positive trends in October coming from the southwest of the U.S. In Europe, you start to have cold season coming. So we're ready for replenishment. No issues there. And then the question is, is it going to impact the Q4? Is it going to impact the Q1? As again, this season seems to be shifting in terms of the calendar.

Okay, great. Thank you. And then just a follow-up on that. So, do you see an opportunity for restocking to be a tailwind for sales, or do you think retailers are going to maintain lower inventory levels going forward?

I think that if the season picks up, which is still to be determined, you are going to see replenishment. And what, again, I cannot tell you is whether that replenishment is going to hit more into Q4 or into Q1 of next year.

Okay, great. Thanks for the questions, and congrats on the quarter. Thank you.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will turn it back to Mr. Manzoni for some concluding remarks.

Thank you, Enes, and thank you all for joining and for your questions. I just wanted to give you some reflection about what I've come to see in this company over the past five months. Perigo holds a position that is hard to replicate. We are the leader in U.S. store brands OTC. We own a portfolio of leading brands in Europe. Very few companies can serve consumers across brands, store brands, categories, and price points the way we do. That gives us the ability to capture demand as consumer preferences shift. We are gaining share on both sides of the Atlantic, and e-commerce is driving further improvement. Our share in e-commerce is already higher than our share in the total market, and as more purchasing moves online, we should benefit to a greater extent. What has held this company back is not the assets. It is complexity. That's what we're taking out quarter by quarter. There is real work ahead to simplify Perigo, execute with greater consistency, and optimize our capabilities and assets to drive stronger performance. We know what we have to do, we're doing it, and I am confident in where we are headed. Thank you all for your continued interest in Perigo.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a great day.