Whirlpool (WHR) Stock Drops 20% on Earnings — CFO Says Demand Worst Since 2008

TLDR

• WHR stock fell around 20% in premarket trading after a major Q1 miss
• Revenue dropped nearly 10% YoY to $3.27 billion, missing the $3.42B estimate
• CFO says appliance demand hasn’t been this low since the 2008 financial crisis
• Full-year EPS guidance of $2.45–$2.95 came in well below Wall Street’s $4.84 estimate
• Whirlpool announced its largest price increase in a decade — 10% in April, 4% more in July

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Whirlpool stock fell around 20% in premarket trading Thursday after the company posted first-quarter results that badly missed Wall Street’s expectations and cut its full-year outlook.

Whirlpool Corporation, WHR

Revenue came in at $3.27 billion, down nearly 10% year over year and below the $3.42 billion analysts had expected. The adjusted loss per share was $1.43, far worse than the $0.36 loss the Street had penciled in.

CFO Roxanne Warner didn’t sugarcoat it. She said demand for major appliances in the US and Canada hit “recession-level lows” in Q1 — levels not seen since the 2008 financial crisis.

North America Takes the Hit

North America MDA revenue fell 7.5% year over year to $2.24 billion. EBIT margin in that segment collapsed to just 0.3%, down from 6.2% a year earlier.

Latin America was a relative bright spot, with revenue growing 5% to $774 million. The small domestic appliance business also held up, growing 13.4% to $222 million, driven by new product launches — think espresso machines and KitchenAid stand mixers.

The company also reported negative free cash flow of $896 million for the quarter.

Price Hikes and Cost Cuts

Whirlpool is moving quickly to offset the damage. The company announced its largest price increase in a decade — a 10% hike in April, with another 4% increase planned for July.

Warner said those price moves are in line with competitors and that the company still has pricing power because the appliance market is “driven mainly by replacement demand.”

Whirlpool also accelerated cost reduction efforts expected to deliver over $150 million in structural savings.

The Supreme Court’s ruling to strike down blanket tariffs created short-term pricing pressure, as competitors dropped prices quickly. But Warner said the Section 232 tariffs still in place make Whirlpool a “net tariff winner” — around 80% of its products are built in the US.

For the full year, Whirlpool lowered its sales forecast to approximately $15 billion and guided adjusted EPS to a range of $2.45–$2.95, well below the $4.84 consensus.

The company said it expects to generate over $300 million in free cash flow for the full year and reduce debt by over $900 million.

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