Whirlpool Sees $4.95 Per-Share Loss, Cuts 2026 Sales Outlook to $14.5 Billion
Key Facts
Whirlpool cut its 2026 sales outlook to about $14.5 billion and expects a loss of $4.95 per share on a GAAP basis, and an ongoing, non-GAAP loss of $1.30 per share. The update came in the company's third-quarter results statement, issued on October 26, after it had forecast sales of about $15 billion and ongoing earnings of between $2.50 and $3.00 per share in August. The company reported a net loss available to common shareholders of $249 million for the quarter, compared with earnings of $73 million a year earlier. Ongoing operating profit fell 46.1% to $97 million. The outlook cut comes as sales contract and profitability declines, while the company cited weak demand and inflation in raw material, fuel and logistics costs among its operating pressures.
Net sales for the quarter were $3.677 billion, down 8.8% from the same period a year earlier, while organic sales, which exclude currency effects, fell 5.4% to $3.643 billion. Investing.com reported that analysts had expected an ongoing loss of $1.04 per share and revenue of about $3.97 billion, while the company reported ongoing earnings of $0.21 per share. The August outlook had kept the company's revenue and margins for the year unchanged from its prior forecast, but lowered its ongoing earnings-per-share outlook because of higher interest expense. The October update then cut the sales outlook to about $14.5 billion and turned the ongoing profit forecast into a loss. The gap between the two earnings-per-share measures shows that the forecast loss on a GAAP basis is steeper than the non-GAAP ongoing loss forecast.
Much of the decline was concentrated in the North American major domestic appliances segment, where sales were $2.495 billion, down 8.3% year over year, and segment operating profit fell 44.7% to $74 million. Whirlpool said the decline in sales, excluding currency effects, reflected weak demand in the segment, while inflation in raw material, fuel and logistics costs limited sequential margin improvement. It added that price increases and structural cost reductions contributed to operational improvement during the quarter, despite a difficult macroeconomic backdrop. The company announced price increases for the fourth quarter in its North American and Latin American major domestic appliances businesses. But the segment's third-quarter sales and profit declines show the scale of the pressure those measures are meant to address.
Alongside its sales and loss forecasts, the company said it is targeting about $700 million in cash from operating activities in 2026 and about $300 million in free cash flow. It also expects net debt at year-end to be below $4.5 billion. These cash targets provide another measure of the company's performance in a year when it expects per-share losses and lower sales. CEO Marc Bitzer said the pace of recovery is slower than expected, but tied further improvement in 2027 to structural cost reductions and the impact of price increases. He added: "While the pace of recovery is slower than expected, these actions chart a clear path to further improvement in 2027."
Investing.com reported that Whirlpool shares fell 7.4% in premarket trading on October 27, after results were released following Monday's close. The stock closed at $26.45 on October 26, according to EL7 daily data. The company scheduled its conference call to discuss the results for October 27, after announcing them the previous day. The call gives management an opportunity to detail the quarterly results and revised outlook as the company heads toward year-end expecting lower sales and per-share losses. The improvement management is targeting in 2027 remains tied, according to the CEO, to cost and pricing actions.