New York, June 25, 2026, 08:05 (EDT)
- McCormick traded up 3.24% before the bell at $49.1444. Shares closed Wednesday at $47.60.
- The tariff refund accounted for around 64% of the adjusted EPS beat and made up 52% of the gross-margin expansion.
- Organic sales gained 1.7%. McCormick de Mexico contributed 12.3 points to the reported sales growth.
- The company kept its full-year forecast. Adjusted EPS is still expected in the $3.05 to $3.13 range.
McCormick & Company, Incorporated (NYSE:MKC) looked ready for gains in Thursday’s premarket after topping estimates last quarter, but a big chunk of the beat came from a tariff refund, leaving the picture less clear. Thursday was a regular trading day on NYSE’s 2026 schedule; at 08:05 EDT, trading hadn’t started yet. The main session would open at 9:30 a.m. and close at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
McCormick shares traded at $49.1444 in premarket action at 8:00 a.m. EDT, up 3.24% from Wednesday’s close at $47.60. Volume was 9,130 shares. With McCormick’s market cap sitting at about $12.82 billion at yesterday’s close, that early move pointed to a boost of around $416 million in equity value before regular trading started. The stock finished Wednesday just off its 52-week low of $44.82, well under its 52-week high of $78.16.
The premarket gain outpaced the move in staples early. The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLP) was recently up around 0.9%. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) slipped about 0.1%.
McCormick posted adjusted earnings of 80 cents a share, beating the LSEG estimate of 69 cents. Sales came in at $1.94 billion, topping the $1.91 billion forecast. GAAP EPS slipped to 56 cents from 65 cents last year, with special charges including transaction and integration costs reducing diluted EPS by 24 cents.
The kicker was the tariff math. CFO Marcos Gabriel said the tariff refund “reversed tariffs” the company had paid before. That refund boosted EPS by around 7 cents, which made up about 64% of the 11-cent adjusted EPS beat. Tariffs also drove 140 basis points of the total 270-basis-point gross margin increase, leaving core margin growth at 130 basis points.
That matters since the refund isn’t setting a new baseline. McCormick said it sees an extra $3 million in tariff refunds coming in the second half. Still, inflation and costs linked to the Middle East conflict are expected to eat up the refund benefit for the year.
Sales numbers told the same story. Net sales rose 16.7% on a reported basis, but organic sales were up just 1.7%. Volume and mix dropped 0.5%, price gave a 2.2 percentage point lift, and McCormick de Mexico added another 12.3 points. Constant-currency sales climbed 14.0%. Basically, organic growth was just a fraction of the headline gain.
McCormick & Company, Inc.’s segment numbers told a mixed story. Consumer sales climbed 22.8%, but Consumer volume and mix dropped 1.9%. The Americas volume slipped 3.6%. Flavor Solutions reported 8.9% growth, as organic sales rose 2.9% and volume and mix gained 1.4%. Foodservice and flavors gave a clearer look at volume trends.
McCormick CEO Brendan Foley told investors the company plans to keep up momentum at Flavor Solutions and boost spending to lift Consumer volume trends. Foley said growth in U.S. spices and seasonings slowed as shoppers used more of what they already had at home, calling out price gaps and private-label competition as issues still weighing on the main shelf segment.
The company left its fiscal 2026 outlook unchanged, still seeing reported sales rising 13% to 17%, organic sales up 1% to 3%, adjusted operating income growing 16% to 20%, and adjusted EPS between $3.05 and $3.13. The forecast stays the same, so the beat hasn’t shifted full-year guidance, though it could buy the stock more time.
McCormick’s key equity issue lies beyond the quarter. The company is moving ahead on the Unilever PLC (NYSE:UL) Foods deal it announced in March, valuing Unilever Foods at about $44.8 billion including debt. On Thursday, McCormick said it expects the combined business to post about $20 billion in 2025 revenue and a 21% operating margin, with $600 million in annual cost synergies at run rate. McCormick aims to announce a European secondary listing location by the end of July.
Cash flow and debt are getting more attention. Gabriel said first-half operating cash flow rose to $431 million from $161 million last year. McCormick paid out $258 million in dividends and used $75 million for capital spending. Quarter-end leverage is about 2.9 times, he said. The company expects $1.5 billion to $2.0 billion for debt paydown in the first two years after the Unilever Foods deal closes.
