S&P Cuts Whirlpool’s Rating to B from BB- and Maintains Negative Outlook
Key Facts
S&P Global Ratings downgraded Whirlpool’s long-term foreign- and local-currency credit ratings to B from BB- and maintained a negative outlook, according to its October 29, 2026, rating action record. The decision moves the company one more notch down the rating scale to which it had fallen in May, while retaining the negative outlook, which indicates the agency has not raised its assessment of near-term risks. The open action record did not identify a single reason for the downgrade, so it cannot be attributed to leverage alone. The decision comes as the company faces declines in sales and profits, according to the article’s background. The agency’s actions also showed downgrades to ratings on some of the company’s debt, extending the decision to its financing instruments.
The downgrade included $250 million of senior unsecured notes due March 1, 2043, carrying a 5.15% coupon, whose rating fell to B- from B+, according to S&P’s record. The action cuts the rating on those notes by two notches, in parallel with the company’s long-term rating falling to B from BB-. The notes relate to a specific Whirlpool obligation, while the long-term rating covers the company’s creditworthiness more broadly. Taken together, the two actions show that the adjustment was not limited to the company’s overall rating, but also affected a specific debt security. The rating record provided no further details about the notes’ terms or the effect of the action on their payments.
The rating background dates to an earlier S&P review on May 14, 2026, when it lowered the long-term rating to BB-. In that review, the agency said adjusted leverage was 7.2 times for the 12 months ended March 31, 2026. It estimated at the time that the ratio would fall to 6.4 times by the end of 2026, then to 5 times by the end of 2027. These figures provide the baseline the agency set before the October downgrade, but do not by themselves establish that leverage was the sole driver of the latest decision. They also show that the May assessment included a forecast for leverage to ease gradually over two years, while the October downgrade came after the company’s results declined.
In trading, Whirlpool shares closed at $27.31 on October 28, according to EL7 data. The stock had fallen 8.7% in after-hours trading on October 26, following the release of third-quarter results, according to Investing.com. On October 28, Stifel cut its rating on the stock to “Sell” from “Hold” and lowered its price target to $20 from $30. The article published about Stifel’s decision linked the rating cut to concerns over market share. These moves place S&P’s decision among a series of negative developments surrounding the stock and the company’s results in late October, without the closing-price data alone establishing a causal relationship between the rating and the share price.