Coty Tops Q4 Revenue but Calls FY27 a Transition Year, Sending Shares Down Sharply

COTY beat on the top line and lost the market anyway. Fiscal fourth-quarter net revenues of $1.269 billion rose 1% on a reported basis, helped by an estimated 3-point currency tailwind, and came in ahead of estimates. On a like-for-like basis revenue actually declined 1%, including roughly a point of drag the company attributed to conflict in the Middle East. Coty also named a former British American Tobacco finance chief as its new CFO.

The full-year picture is where the pressure shows. FY26 net revenues were $5.807 billion, down 2% reported and 5% like-for-like, and adjusted EBITDA fell 22% for the year. Consumer beauty demand stayed soft, and margin compression rather than the revenue line has been the binding constraint.

Guidance is what moved the stock. Management explicitly framed FY27 as a transition year, guiding first-quarter like-for-like revenue to a low-to-mid single-digit decline, adjusted gross margin down 50 to 100 basis points year over year, and adjusted EBITDA down a low-teens percentage. That sits alongside a portfolio reset that includes the Wella monetization and a planned Gucci Beauty exit by FY28, with final decisions on the Consumer Beauty strategic review due by the end of calendar 2026. Shares fell sharply on the release, trading down roughly 17.5% premarket.

The tension for investors is that a genuine simplification story and an earnings trough are arriving at the same time. A smaller, more focused Coty may be a better business, but the guidance says the financials get worse before that thesis is testable, and the balance sheet has to carry the portfolio work in the meantime.

What to watch: the outcome of the Consumer Beauty strategic review by year-end, the terms and timing of the Gucci license exit, and whether like-for-like revenue stabilizes in the back half of FY27 as the new CFO takes hold.

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