What happened
Shares of Nu Skin Enterprises (NUS 0.32%) plunged 14.6% on Wednesday after the direct-selling personal care products company announced disappointing preliminary second-quarter 2019 results.
More specifically, Nu Skin says its second-quarter revenue is now expected to arrive between $622 million and $623 million, translating to earnings per share of $0.82 to $0.84. Analysts, on average, were modeling earnings closer to $0.92 per share on revenue of $665.4 million.
IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.
So what
According to Nu Skin CEO Ritch Wood, weakness in Mainland China primarily was to blame following a 100-day campaign by the government "to review and inspect the health products and direct selling industries."
In particular, Wood called out media scrutiny and continued government restrictions on sales meetings -- approvals for which remain limited even now -- for hurting consumer sentiment in the Middle Kingdom.
Now what
As such, Nu Skin also reduced its outlook for 2019 revenue to be in the range of $2.48 billion to $2.52 billion, which should translate to earnings per share of $3.20 to $3.35. By comparison, the company's previous guidance called for revenue of $2.76 billion to $2.81 billion, with earnings per share of $3.80 to $4.05.
For now, investors seeking more color on Nu Skin's performance will need to wait until the company's official second-quarter release in early August. But given this preliminary guidance reduction in the meantime, it's no surprise to see the stock falling hard today.
