Estée Lauder Guides Q3 Below Estimates - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - While reporting financial results for the second quarter on Friday, Estée Lauder Cos., Inc. (EL) provided earnings and sales growth guidance for the third quarter.

However, the Company is not providing guidance for the full year 2021, given the recent surge of COVID-19 infections globally and the uncertainty around the timing, speed and duration of the recovery from the adverse impacts.

For the third quarter, the company expects earnings in a range of $0.99 to $1.11 per share and adjusted earnings in a range of $1.10 to $1.20 per share. Reported net sales are forecast to increase between 13 and 14 percent, and forecast to grow between 10 and 11 percent on a constant currency basis.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $1.46 per share on a sales growth of 15.3 percent to $3.86 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

"We still expect to deliver sequentially improving sales growth each quarter for the remainder of fiscal 2021 as we continue driving recovery," said Fabrizio Freda, President and Chief Executive Officer.

The Company said it plans to return to its long-term growth targets of 6% to 8% sales growth, 50 basis points of operating margin expansion and double-digit adjusted diluted earnings per share growth in constant currency after the recovery period from the pandemic.