01:18 PM EDT, 04/30/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Newell Brands ( NWL ) on Wednesday issued a downbeat second-quarter earnings outlook and downgraded its full-year core sales guidance, citing a challenging macroeconomic backdrop.

The maker of consumer and household brands such as Sharpie and Rubbermaid expects second-quarter normalized earnings of $0.21 to $0.24 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet are looking for $0.32. Full-year core sales are now projected to drop 1% to 3%, compared with the company's prior outlook range indicating a 2% fall to 1% gain.

Newell shares were down 8% in Wednesday afternoon trade. The stock has lost nearly 52% in value so far this year.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump announced sweeping new tariffs on imports from several nations, including China. Trump later declared a 90-day pause on duties for non-retaliating countries. However, the US and China have been in a deadlock, having raised tariffs on each other's goods multiple times.

Newell continues to expect full-year normalized EPS in a range of $0.70 to $0.76 and net sales to drop between 2% and 4%. Wall Street is looking for non-GAAP EPS of $0.68.

"A series of swift interventions including targeted pricing actions, incremental cost reduction efforts, and rapid sourcing decisions in conjunction with our first-quarter bottom-line over delivery gives us confidence we can fully offset the US tariffs and foreign retaliatory tariffs currently in place, other than the additional 125% US tariffs on China," Chief Financial Officer Mark Erceg said in a statement. The company sees its 2025 normalized EPS negatively affected by up to $0.10 if the additional 125% China tariff remains in effect for the full year, according to Erceg.

For the first quarter, the company swung to a normalized loss of $0.01 per share from breakeven a year earlier. The consensus on FactSet was for a loss of $0.06. Net sales dropped 5.3% to $1.57 billion, but topped the Street's $1.54 billion estimate. Core sales decreased 2.1%. The company said its net sales were also impacted by "unfavorable foreign exchange and business exits."

Second-quarter net and core sales are projected to drop 3% to 5% each. Newell widened its 2025 operating cash flow guidance to between $400 million and $500 million from a prior range of $450 million to $500 million, citing higher tariff cost on inventory.

The company is confident that "after what will likely be a period of temporary disruption, (it) is well positioned to disproportionately benefit from the global trade realignment currently underway," Chief Executive Chris Peterson said on an earnings conference call, according to a FactSet transcript. The number of categories where the company is strategically advantaged with North American tariff free-production "significantly exceeds" those where it is disadvantaged, Peterson said.

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