Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. (HLF) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Welcome, and thank you for joining the Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call for Herbalife Limited. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, today's conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Samantha Holway, Vice President, Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's call.

Samantha Holway: Thank you, and welcome to everyone joining us. With us today are John DeSimone, our Interim Chief Executive Officer; and Scott Schaefer, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin today's call, I would like to direct you to the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements on Page two of our presentation and in our earnings release issued earlier today, which are both available under the Investor Relations section of our website. The presentation and earnings release include a discussion of some of the more important factors that could cause results to differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statement within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. As is customary, the content of today's call and presentation will be governed by this language. In addition, during today's call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures exclude certain unusual or nonrecurring items that management believes impact the comparability of the periods referenced. Please refer to our earnings release and presentation materials for additional information regarding these non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measure. And with that, I will now turn the call over to our Interim CEO, John DeSimone.

John DeSimone: Thank you, Sam, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Before turning to our results, I want to acknowledge Stephan and thank him for his leadership and contributions to Herbalife. His success as a distributor and deep understanding of our business brought a unique perspective to the CEO role. Herbalife has been an important part of my life for many years. I've had the privilege of working alongside talented people, building relationships with distributors around the world and seeing firsthand the difference Herbalife can make in people's lives. I have tremendous belief in this company, our people and the entrepreneurial spirit of our distributors, and I have great confidence in our future. As CEO, I'm excited to lead Herbalife at this important time. We have much to be proud of, and we have meaningful growth opportunities by strengthening our core business and better supporting our distributors and reaching new entrepreneurs and consumers. I'm stepping into this role with ownership, energy and a focus on execution and a commitment to results. I've worked closely with our leadership team and distributors to identify new growth opportunities and sharpen current priorities with a clear path forward. Today, I'll share some of that thinking along with our third quarter results. Let me start with the quarter. We delivered net sales of $1.4 billion, an increase of 6% year-over-year on a reported basis and 7.6% on a constant currency basis, exceeding our guidance. This marked our fifth consecutive quarter of net sales growth on both a reported and constant currency basis. Adjusted EBITDA was $182 million, also exceeding guidance, and our adjusted EBITDA margin improved 70 basis points year-over-year to 13.5%. I'm encouraged by our performance and the progress we're making. At the same time, we recognize there's more work to do to continue to accelerate growth, improve productivity and build on the momentum we've established. Scott will provide more details on our financial results and regional performance shortly. Over the past several years, we've made meaningful investments in our product portfolio, personalized nutrition and technology capabilities. These investments have strengthened our foundation. Now we're focused on leveraging that foundation to strengthen our core business and unlock more growth opportunities. At the center of our strategy is a simple principle. Herbalife succeeds when our distributors succeed. Herbalife is a platform that enables entrepreneurs from around the world to deliver wellness and nutrition to millions of people worldwide. More than 3 million entrepreneurs in over 90 markets use our platform to build their own unique businesses; some run a nutrition club, some lead transformation challenges, some build communities through wellness profiles in person and online, while others use social media and social selling or run fit clubs or fit competitions. No matter the business model, each brings a personal connection to customers that no company could create on its own. Our focus is making the platform stronger for each of them, because when they serve more customers, more people live healthier lives and Herbalife grows. Our opportunity is to develop dedicated expertise around their most significant business models while leaving room for new ones to emerge. This includes products, training, programs and digital tools tailored to how our distributors operate. It also means giving distributors flexibility to customize these capabilities and allowing regions to adapt products, programs and digital experiences to their local needs. Three strategic priorities I'll discuss on today's call illustrates how we're putting this approach into practice. First, establishing a dedicated nutrition club vertical; second, launching adaptable technology that empowers our distributors to grow their businesses in ways that work for them and their customers. and third, expanding into new entrepreneur and consumer segments through the Bioniq brand. Let's start with Nutrition Clubs, a key differentiator for Herbalife. With over 64,000 Nutrition Clubs globally, our distributors have built their businesses around personal relationships, community and helping consumers engage in their health and wellness journeys. Of those 64,000 clubs, almost 9,000 are in the U.S. These clubs accounted for 42% of U.S. volume in the third quarter, with club productivity increasing over 10% year-over-year in each quarter of 2026. This increase in volume has been driven by a consistent growth of customers coming through the door, which is up more than 7% this quarter, along with increased visit frequency. This is just the contribution of Nutrition Clubs in one country. We see an opportunity to build on this foundation and drive even greater productivity and profitability by establishing an internal Nutrition Club organization focused on helping distributors grow their club businesses. That means better tools, Nutrition Clubs specific products, tailored programs and training and more coordinated support while preserving flexibility for regions and distributors to adapt successful approaches to their local needs. Our goal is to help more clubs build on what's working, replicate proven practices and unlock potential across this important business model. This is the first of what we believe will be more specific internal organizations to support other large methods of operations our distributors utilize. Our second strategic priority is expanding our customer engagement platform. Earlier, I described Herbalife as a platform supporting many ways to build a business. Our technology needs to enable that flexibility. We already have building blocks in market. In the U.S., our Engage app allows customers to order directly from local Nutrition Clubs prior to arriving. In Asia Pacific, our Hub app supports distributors running transformation challenges. Today, these operate as separate tools with separate data. We're building a common modular technology foundation designed to support different distributor business models and evolve with their needs. Many distributors currently rely on a patchwork of outside apps, tools and manual processes. Our expanded platform will bring essential capabilities together and turn proven practices from our most successful distributors into digital programs that are simple to adopt and use. With a sheer foundation, we can introduce new programs faster, direct investment towards those demonstrating consumer demand and attractive returns. We're targeting the first quarter of 2027 to begin introducing these new capabilities starting with the 24 games with additional programs to follow. The platform will give distributors greater flexibility to create customer experiences that fit their businesses while helping us capture consumer transactions that develop insights to improve customer engagement, retention and growth. Over time, these insights will help us better understand consumer needs, develop more relevant products and services and build a more predictable and sustainable business. Our goal is to capture at least 50% of our distributors' global consumer transactions within our technology ecosystem over the next three years. Alongside our efforts to strengthen existing distributor businesses, Bioniq gives us an opportunity to reach new entrepreneur and consumer segments and expand growth. When we acquired Bioniq, it was primarily a personalized nutrition business. We're now expanding it into a premium health and wellness brand spanning personalized nutrition, sports performance and healthy lifespan. Throughout 2027, we plan to offer more convenient formats and premium offerings, including introducing additional personalized nutrition SKUs. Bioniq also creates another pathway for entrepreneurs to join our platform, giving them greater flexibility to build their businesses around the products, brand and consumers that they're most passionate about. We believe Bioniq can bring the energy and appeal of an insurgent brand to our platform, attracting new entrepreneurs and consumers. By leveraging our existing infrastructure, global reach and scale, Bioniq can become a meaningful contributor to our growth and long-term value. These initiatives are integral to our strategy, but they are not the entirety of our growth agenda. We're also expanding support for other distributor business models, broadening the global reach of our skin care offerings and developing nutritional products and programs for evolving consumer needs, including those for people using GLP-1 medications. Importantly, we're focused on driving performance across our core business and have established clear objectives for our strategic initiatives. We will measure our progress, hold ourselves accountable and keep investors informed as we execute. Before turning the call over to Scott, I want to share one more reason I'm excited about Herbalife's future, and that's the power of human connection. Technology has made it easier than ever to connect digitally. But despite being more connected than ever, people are increasingly experiencing social isolation and loneliness. The World Health Organization estimates that one in six people worldwide experiences loneliness and roughly half of U.S. adults report filling only. Research also suggests that people are more likely to stay engaged with wellness programs when digital tools are paired with personal support. Our distributors have been bringing people together through Nutrition Clubs, fitness activities, wellness challenges and other community-based experiences for decades. That's a competitive advantage we can leverage even more effectively. The 24 games I mentioned earlier are a great example. What began as a distributor's idea years ago, the games are a team-based fitness event where participants compete, cheer on their teams and connect their own health and wellness. Local competitors can progress to larger events and ultimately compete in our extravaganza or events in Europe and in the U.S. And this format can be replicated and scaled as we work toward a broader global rollout. Our first 24 games event in the U.S. was held last week in Miami, bringing together more than 350 attendees. These experiences create opportunities to engage consumers, bring local communities together and introduce more people to Herbalife and showcase our commitment to a healthy active lifestyle. The 24 games are just one example of what we do best and how we can build on it. We're not trying to reinvent what makes Herbalife successful. We're leveraging the strength and entrepreneurial spirit already within our business while structuring the organization and putting tools and capabilities in place to unlock more of the potential and expand our opportunities for growth. I have great confidence in Herbalife, in our leadership team, in our distributors and in the opportunities ahead to drive sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll turn the call over to Scott Schaefer, our new Chief Financial Officer, for a closer look at our financial performance. Scott, over to you.

Scott Schaefer: Thank you, John. Starting with our third quarter financial highlights. We delivered another strong quarter. Third quarter net sales were $1.4 billion, up 6% versus the third quarter of 2025 and exceeding our guidance range of up 0.5% to 4.5%. This is our fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. On a constant currency basis, net sales increased 7.6% year-over-year, approximately 210 basis points above the high end of our guidance range of up 1.5% to 5.5%. We have now delivered year-over-year constant currency growth in 10 of the last 12 quarters. FX was a 160 basis point headwind in the quarter, stronger than the 100 basis point headwind included in our guidance. India was the largest contributor to our third quarter net sales strength, though net sales would have exceeded the midpoint of our guidance range even without India's outperformance. Adjusted EBITDA was $182 million, also above our guidance range of $160 million to $180 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 13.5%, up 70 basis points year-over-year. CapEx was $19 million for the quarter with our guidance range of $15 million to $25 million. Capitalized and prepaid SaaS implementation costs were $15 million. Gross profit margin was 77.3% for the quarter, down 40 basis points year-over-year. This decline reflected approximately 44 basis points of country mix, 36 basis points from cost changes related to self-manufacturing and sourcing and 26 basis points of higher other costs. These were partially offset by 61 basis points of pricing benefits and 9 basis points of favorable FX. Third quarter net income attributable to Herbalife was $59 million, up 36% year-over-year. On an adjusted basis, net income was approximately $69 million. Diluted EPS was $0.55, up $0.13 year-over-year. Adjusted diluted EPS was $0.64, up $0.14, which included a $0.06 FX headwind versus the third quarter of 2025. Our adjusted effective tax rate this quarter was 41.4% due to timing of discrete items, and we continue to expect approximately 35% for the full year. Year-to-date, operating cash flow was $298 million, up $63 million or approximately 27% versus the first nine months of 2025, continuing to demonstrate the strength of our cash generation. Credit agreement EBITDA for the third quarter was $199 million, and I'll cover our leverage ratios when we turn to our capital allocation priorities. For additional details regarding the adjustments between adjusted EBITDA and credit agreement EBITDA as well as the calculation of net debt, total leverage ratio and net leverage ratio, please refer to the presentation appendix and the earnings press release. Reported net sales increased approximately $77 million in the quarter or 6%, while constant currency net sales increased 7.6%. Volume increased 8.6% worldwide, marking our fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year volume growth. Pricing provided an approximately $36 million benefit in the quarter, while country mix was an approximately $47 million headwind to net sales. FX was an approximately $21 million or 160 basis point headwind. Moving to our regional net sales for the quarter. Three of our five regions delivered year-over-year net sales growth this quarter on a reported and constant currency basis. Asia Pacific led our growth with constant currency net sales up 26% and India continues to be the primary driver. India's net sales increased $87 million year-over-year or 39% and 52% in local currency on nearly 50% volume growth. The GST change in the third quarter of 2025 added momentum to an Indian business that was already growing. As we lap that change in the fourth quarter, our first full quarter doing so, we expect to see continued growth in India. Latin America grew 5.1% in constant currency and reported growth of 9%. North America net sales increased 1.7%, our second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. The revenue recognition timing shift from the first quarter to the third quarter mentioned on our first quarter earnings call contributed to this quarter's net sales growth versus last year. These gains were partially offset by EMEA and China. Moving now to the drivers of third quarter year-over-year change in our adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA was $182 million, and our adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 70 basis points to 13.5%. On a constant currency basis, adjusted EBITDA increased to $194 million. Looking at the bridge, we first see the drivers of year-over-year change in gross profit, including our fifth consecutive quarter of volume growth, along with pricing benefits, partially offset by unfavorable sales mix and input costs. We also saw a favorable impact in promotional-related spend, primarily due to the timing of major distributor events, which is occurring in the fourth quarter this year compared to the third quarter in 2025. Other changes include an unfavorable net impact from India GST. Foreign exchange was an approximately $11 million headwind to adjusted EBITDA. Moving to our capital allocation priorities next. Our disciplined capital allocation framework is centered on three priorities. First, we will continue to invest in the business, prioritizing the highest return opportunities across our distributor network, product portfolio and digital capabilities to support sustainable long-term growth. Second, we will continue strengthening our balance sheet, progressing towards our long-term objectives of approximately $1.4 billion of total debt and $1 billion of net debt, while maintaining a net leverage at or below 2x. At quarter end, we achieved that target with a net leverage ratio of 2.0x, down from 2.2x at the end of the second quarter. Our April refinancing, combined with the continued debt paydown, reduced net interest expense by $19 million year-over-year in the quarter. In addition, the recent refinancing extended our maturity profile with no significant maturity until our 2028 convertible notes, further strengthening our financial flexibility. And third, we will return capital to shareholders through our recently authorized $250 million share repurchase program. We plan to begin repurchasing shares in the fourth quarter and intend to execute the program systematically and opportunistically over time. We also generated more than $151 million of operating cash flow during the quarter and finished the period with $409 million of cash. This included paying down $88 million of debt while maintaining only $50 million outstanding under our revolving credit facility. Now I'll review our outlook for the fourth quarter and full year. We are continuing to provide net sales and adjusted EBITDA guidance on both reported and constant currency basis, with reported guidance based on an average daily exchange rate for the first two weeks of October. For the fourth quarter, we expect foreign exchange to continue being a headwind to net sales and adjusted EBITDA. On a reported basis, we expect net sales to increase 0.5% to 4.5% year-over-year, including a 200 basis point currency headwind. On a constant currency basis, we expect net sales to increase 2.5% to 6.5% year-over-year. We expect fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $145 million to $165 million on a reported basis and in the range of $155 million to $175 million on a constant currency basis. Fourth quarter capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of $13 million to $23 million. For the full year, we have raised our net sales guidance on both a reported and constant currency basis. We now expect reported net sales to increase 4.9% to 5.9% year-over-year and constant currency net sales to increase 5.3% to 6.3%. For full year adjusted EBITDA, we are maintaining our range of $670 million to $690 million on a reported basis and raising our range to $700 million to $720 million on a constant currency basis. We now expect 2026 capital expenditures to be $55 million to $65 million, narrowed from previous guidance and capitalized and prepaid SaaS implementation costs of $35 million to $45 million, also narrowed, which are incremental to CapEx. Before we move to Q&A, I'd like to close with a few words on margins. We expanded adjusted EBITDA margin by 70 basis points this quarter. Looking ahead, we expect the path to further expansion to be more gradual. Our fourth quarter guidance reflects a lower margin than the third quarter, and we're monitoring input costs as we plan for 2027. Stepping into the CFO role, one of my top priorities is a clear and disciplined approach to margin. On our fourth quarter call, I look forward to sharing our three-year margin objectives, including the levers we're prioritizing and how we'll measure our progress. With that, this concludes our prepared remarks. John will close the call after Q&A. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Anthony Vendetti with Maxim Group.

Anthony Vendetti: John, I was just wondering, obviously, with GLP-1s having potential side effects and maybe also the increase in the desire for protein replacement, have you adjusted or are you refocusing Herbalife's offering or seeing changes in demand for the current product set? And then I just had a question on the priorities for Pro2col, Bioniq and Life I/O, has that -- I know you just stepped into the interim CEO role, but maybe just give an update on the priorities of those three new products.

John DeSimone: Sure. So I'll start with the GLP-1. And I, like you think there is a big opportunity for our products to coexist with consumers who take GLP-1 medication. And I mentioned that in the opening monologue that, that is an opportunity for us to grow. I mean, I know one of our big categories of product is weight management, but it's far more than just weight management. In fact, we probably need to stop working on calling it something else because it's a lot of protein that gets used for other things. It's teas and that get used for energy and whatnot. So there is a program we're putting together for our current products to exist and be taken by consumers who take GLP-1. I think it's actually a big opportunity. There's a couple of elements that excite me. One is, our current products can do the job. So it's not about developing new products or rolling it out, which we all know takes time. This is about positioning our current products to be taken with GLP-1 and position it in a way that consumers can accept it, and that is one of our key strategies. If I move to your second part of your question, which was Pro2col, Bioniq and then I think you asked Life I/O. So I'm going to start with Bioniq. I actually think Bioniq is a really big opportunity for us. It started as a personalized formulated product. We launched one SKU, it's doing fine. We've had a little less than 50,000 units sold since we launched. But the energy and excitement around the Bioniq brand is much greater than the actual sales, which I think we've always said that this opportunity of Bioniq is beyond just the direct impact. It's this indirect impact. And so we're going to expand Bioniq to have a more complete product portfolio with other personalized products beyond just the vitamins and minerals that currently exist. We're going to roll Life I/O into Bioniq because when we were developing Life I/O, we didn't own Bioniq, so you don't need two brands. We're going to launch sports within the Bioniq brand. and launch a business opportunity within the Bioniq brand that still sits with Herbalife, so you can sell either. But I think the Bioniq brand can reach consumers, maybe the Herbalife brand can't in certain markets and certain demographics, and there's a lot of energy built around that. So I think Bioniq is a priority, and I think it has a lot of opportunity to drive growth. And I mentioned Life I/O in there. So the last one is Pro2col. Pro2col was never our entire customer engagement platform. It was meant to be just one element of it. And it was designed at least currently for one particular approach to operating. It's still in beta. Its usage is low. We're going to continue taking a parallel path with Pro2col, but we're also developing a more broader customer engagement app/platform that's built with a common element, but that's very customizable, so are configurable. So it's this platform. Our distributors run different businesses and our technology needs to match those businesses. So we'll have a common component, and then there will be modules for each DMO. And then within each module, there'll be the ability to configure. So distributors can use this platform the way they currently operate the business to drive incremental value. And then as far as -- like I said, we're going to launch the first DMO on this platform will be the 24 games, that will be in the first quarter, and then it will be followed by challenges in the Nutrition Clubs and so forth. And at the end of the day, usage decides value. Distributors will use the various apps based on the value it helps create for them, and that will determine Pro2col's ultimate value and how Pro2col fits in. It was a long-winded, but I think you asked a pretty complex set of questions. So hopefully, it came through.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And I'm not showing any further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Interim CEO, John DeSimone.

John DeSimone: Yes. Well, first, I want to thank everybody for joining today. I want to close by reinforcing at least what I believe is fundamentally critical to Herbalife. We have millions of entrepreneurs all around the world. They develop their own unique ways of doing business, serving customers and creating communities that work for them. They do it through Nutrition Clubs, fitness challenges and one of the many other business models they've created, and our distributors continually demonstrate tremendous innovation. That diversity of business models and the entrepreneurial spirit behind them is one of our greatest competitive advantages. I think it's what makes Herbalife different from every other company, every other direct seller around the globe and what gives us so much confidence in our future. I believe we have an incredible opportunity to grow by expanding our platform capabilities, enabling entrepreneurial innovation to flourish. By providing brands, so not just one brand, but we launching Bioniq as its own brand by providing top products that may also be DMO-specific and technology that's adaptable to the different ways our distributors go to market. And I think it will help them serve more customers. And I think the single biggest opportunity we have is to get more value from the millions of customers we see every day now around the globe. And this strategy will help do that. So when our distributors succeed, Herbalife succeeds and together, we can bring health and wellness to more people around the world. And with that, I just want to thank everybody, and thanks for joining today, and we'll see you next quarter.

Operator: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's presentation. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect, and have a wonderful day.