Whirlpool Narrows Sales Decline, Cuts Earnings Outlook
The appliance maker lowered its 2026 ongoing earnings forecast to $2.50 to $3.00 a share.
Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) narrowed its organic sales decline in the second quarter as pricing helped its North American business recover from the start of the year. Organic sales fell 1.7%, easing from a 6.1% decline in the first quarter.
The appliance maker’s sequential improvement came as industry-driven volume weakness, tariffs and inflation continued to weigh on profitability. Net sales increased 7.5% from the first quarter, while organic sales rose 7.6%.
Second-quarter net sales fell 6.8% from a year earlier to $3.517 billion. GAAP net earnings rose 14.2% to $75 million, or $1.15 a share, and the net margin expanded 0.4 percentage point to 2.1%. Ongoing results remained in the red at a loss of $0.21 a share, narrower than the first quarter’s $0.56 loss, while ongoing EBIT increased sequentially to $62 million from $44 million.
North America led the quarter-over-quarter recovery, with sales rising about 8% to $2.408 billion and EBIT margin improving 2.4 percentage points to 2.7%. Implemented pricing offset some of the industry-driven volume decline. Compared with a year earlier, regional sales fell 1.5% and EBIT dropped 55.4% as lower volume, tariffs, raw-material inflation and fuel costs pressured results.
Latin America sales climbed 12.1% sequentially to $868 million, while EBIT fell 44.7% to $26 million and margin narrowed to 3.0%. Negative price and product mix in Brazil outweighed higher volume, prompting announced price increases and structural cost actions. Excluding currency effects, the region’s sales declined 1.7% from a year earlier.
The small domestic appliances business lost momentum after six consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth. Currency-adjusted sales declined 1.2% as retailers reduced inventory, reversing first-quarter growth of 9.5%. Sequentially, sales fell 9.0% to $202 million and EBIT margin contracted to 11.9% from 21.0%.
Whirlpool continues to expect about $15.0 billion in 2026 sales, an ongoing EBIT margin of roughly 4.0%, operating cash flow of approximately $700 million and free cash flow above $300 million. It lowered GAAP earnings guidance to $2.25 to $2.75 a share from $2.45 to $2.95, citing higher interest expense, and reduced its GAAP margin outlook to about 1.0%.
Restructuring costs rose to $41 million from $32 million in the first quarter and $2 million a year earlier. Of the latest expense, $33 million related to the planned closure of Whirlpool’s Supsa plant in Apodaca, Mexico, where production is expected to stop by the second quarter of 2027.