Helen of Troy reports Q2 EPS $1.74, consensus $1.64

Reports Q2 revenue $491.6M, consensus $485M. Julien R. Mininberg, CEO, stated: “During the quarter we delivered net sales and adjusted EPS at the high end of our expectations. I’m pleased with the consistency of our results as we work toward returning to growth. During the quarter we achieved our revenue expectations for the majority of our Leadership Brands and international performance was particularly strong. We continued to support important new product launches, significantly increased gross margin, and returned value to shareholders through share repurchase. Our initiatives to streamline our inventory and improve free cash flow continue to deliver big results, with inventory down over $200M in the first half of this fiscal year versus the same period last year, and free cash flow improvement of $325M during that same comparison period. All workstreams of our Pegasus restructuring initiatives are making good progress and we remain on track to deliver our financial goals.”