What happened
Shares of Nu Skin Enterprises (NUS -2.84%) are down 14.6% as of 1:15 p.m. EST Thursday after the personal-care consumer discretionary company announced in-line fourth-quarter 2019 results, but followed with disappointing guidance.
So what
Quarterly revenue declined 14.6% year over year to $583.4 million, translating to net income of $40.1 million, or $0.72 per share (down from adjusted earnings of $1.05 per share in the year-ago period). Analysts, on average, were expecting roughly the same earnings on slightly lower revenue of $582 million.
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CEO Ritch Wood noted the company's "customer base remained relatively strong" in the fourth quarter, but that its sales-leader count declined given weakness in China.
Now what
For the first quarter of 2020, Nu Skin expects revenue in the range of $480 million to $510 million, down 23% to 18% year over year, with earnings per share ranging from $0.23 to $0.33. On average, analysts were modeling earnings of $0.74 per share on revenue of $596.5 million.
Nu Skin also provided initial guidance for the full-year 2020, calling for revenue to decline 5% to 10% from 2019 to a range of $2.17 billion to $2.30 billion. That should translate to full-year EPS of $2.00 to $2.40. Even the high end of both ranges was far below Wall Street's estimates for 2020 earnings of $3.28 per share on revenue of $2.44 billion.
Wood said that the coronavirus outbreak in China is largely to blame since the company placed a temporary hold on all in-person meetings between its sales force and customers in the country.
"While we expect the outbreak to significantly impact our business in the near term, we remain confident in our long-term opportunity in Mainland China and around the world," Wood said. "While the duration and global impact remain uncertain, our guidance reflects our current understanding of the situation."
