Clorox Holds Fiscal 2027 EPS Range as Costs Push Results Toward Low End

Clorox held its fiscal 2027 adjusted earnings-per-share range after first-quarter results topped a $1.07 analyst estimate, while higher costs pushed its full-year profit view toward the range’s low end.

For the three months through Sept. 30, 2026, net sales came to $1.905 billion, up 33% from $1.429 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Adjusted diluted EPS was $1.55, an 82% rise from $0.85. The per-share result was 48 cents above the $1.07 analyst estimate. Clorox’s GAAP diluted EPS reached $1.39, compared with $0.65 one year earlier. Adjusted EPS is a non-GAAP measure and uses a different calculation from GAAP earnings.

The company maintained its fiscal 2027 adjusted EPS range of $5.70 to $6 and sales growth forecast of 13% to 14%. It now expects adjusted EPS nearer the lower end of that range and gross margin of about 41.5%. That margin figure is a full-year expectation, not a forecast just for the next quarter. The projected annual margin is about 1.1 percentage points above the first-quarter result of 40.4%, though below the 41.7% reported a year earlier.

The GOJO acquisition contributed about 15 percentage points to sales growth, while organic sales rose 18%. The organic comparison included lower shipments in the year-earlier period, after retailers reduced inventory during Clorox’s U.S. ERP transition in fiscal 2026. Those inventory cuts had weighed on shipments then, making the prior-year comparison part of the context for this quarter’s growth.

Gross margin was 40.4%, down 1.3 percentage points from 41.7% a year earlier. Higher commodity, manufacturing and logistics costs were the main pressures on the measure. Higher volume and cost savings partly offset those expenses.

Clorox Chair and CEO Linda Rendle said, “The cost environment has become more challenging.”

The results update TokenPost’s earlier consumer-staples earnings preview, which had listed Clorox among companies scheduled to report.