This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.
2/5/2026
Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Philip Terpiloli, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasury. Please go ahead.
Thanks, Operator, and thank you to everyone who has joined today. On the call with me are Ron Lombardi, our Chairman, President, and CEO, and Chris Sacco, our CFO and COO. On today's call, we'll review our third quarter fiscal 2026 results, discuss our full year outlook, and then take questions from analysts. The slide presentation accompanies today's call. It can be accessed by visiting PrestigeConsumerHealthcare.com, clicking on the Investors link, and then on today's webcast and presentation. Remember, some of the information contained in the presentation today includes non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to the nearest GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and slide presentation. On today's call, management will make forward-looking statements around risks and uncertainties, which are detailed at a complete safe harbor on page two of the slide presentation that accompanies the call. These are important to review and contemplate. Business environment uncertainty remains heightened due to supply chain constraints, high inflation, and geopolitical events, which have numerous potential impacts. This means results could change at any time, and the forecasted impact of risk considerations is the best estimate based on the information available as of today's date. Additional information concerning risk factors and cautionary statements are available in our most recent SEC filings and the most recent Company 10-K. I'll now hand it over to our CEO, Ron Lombardi. Ron? Thanks, Phil.
Let's begin on slide five. We delivered solid results for the third quarter, which reflected the benefits of our diverse business model and strong financial profile. We are pleased with these results, especially when navigating the challenging consumer backdrop we've seen year to date. which includes consumers continuing to change where they shop in a fluid environment with tariffs, inflation, a government shutdown, public announcements related to acetaminophen, and more. All of this led to a dynamic environment in Q3, which we successfully managed through. Sales of $283 million were slightly better than forecast. Our diverse customer base allowed us to see solid order trends in our growing channels, which more than offset the impact of other channels that are more affected by the macro issues I just mentioned. Our broad distribution allows us to benefit from changes in consumer shopping habits, no matter where they look to buy our trusted and leading brands. Another positive is that we continue to see sequential improvement in clear eyes supply for the second quarter in a row. We anticipate further improvements based on actions we've taken that I'll discuss shortly. Moving down the P&L, both gross margin of 55.5% and adjusted EPS of $1.14 were in line with our expectations provided on our second quarter call. Free cash flow was $209 million year-to-date, up 13% versus the prior year. This impressive cash flow allowed us to repurchase approximately $46 million in stock and acquire our strategic partner, Pillar 5, during the quarter, while still maintaining leverage in the mid-2s. Our disciplined capital allocation strategy continues to enhance shareholder value, Chris is going to discuss this and specifically our year-to-date share repurchases after reviewing the financials. So despite a fast-changing consumer backdrop, we have confidence in our core business, which remains well-positioned, and we continue to expect free cash flow growth for the fiscal year. Now, let's turn to slide six for an update on iCare Supply. We continue to see long-term growth opportunity in the eye care category driven by an aging population and other factors. While we have faced challenges in supply for our ClearEyes brand for the last several quarters, we are confident that we've taken the appropriate strategic actions shown on the left side of the page to return ClearEyes to its leading market share position. To start, over the last nine months, we've brought on two new third-party suppliers to help ensure near-term production as well as long-term backup supply. Second, we closed on the Pillar 5 acquisition in December, which unlocks the opportunity to take direct control over an important element of our supply chain. Third, with the installation of a new high-speed line that began in December, we believe Pillar 5 has the capability to support the majority of our eye care production internally over time. With the combination of ownership and the high-speed line, this gives the facility the ability to have unconflicted focus on producing high-volume, quality product on time for Clear Eyes, the historically number one eye drop brand at retail. With these strategic underpinnings, we believe this year is set up to allow us to shift towards a focus on accelerating total production. These priorities to achieve this are on the right side of the page. We expect to continue sequentially increasing supply through calendar 2026 as we increase efficiency levels and production to higher sustainable levels. During this period, we also expect one-time investments as we transition Pillar 5 from their private ownership. As production and resulting supply improves, this will allow us to further diversify our production runs into an expanded assortment of SKUs versus today where the focus is on our top two selling items, Redness Relief and Max Redness. These higher production levels will allow us to refill both retailer safety stocks and our own. Lastly, the consistency and volume of production will enable marketing efforts that should help further accelerate demand growth. So in summary, we feel good about the action steps we've taken to improve our eye care production positioning. We believe we are positioned to continue to improve supply sequentially again in Q4 and moving forward. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris to discuss the financials.
You're reading a preview of the PBH Q3 2026 earnings call.
Free account.
