Even artificial intelligence can't supplant Sharpie doodling.
Newell Brands was edging higher on a down day for the market on Friday after the consumer products company's in-line third-quarter earnings.
Chief Executive Officer Chris Peterson told Barron's it was the best back-to-school season in more than three years as its Sharpie, Expo, Prisma Color, and Elmer's brands all delivered very strong growth.
"Since the advent of personal computers to cell phones and [now AI] people have been talking about the writing category becoming obsolete for over 20 years and we just haven't seen it happen yet," he says. "In fact it's starting to go the other way now, there's been a return to using writing instruments."
That wasn't the only good news in Newell's quarter, which included earnings of 20 cents a share, matching consensus estimates, and revenue growth of 3.7% to $1.87 billion, squeaking ahead of analysts' expectations of $1.86 billion.
It was the second straight quarter of core sales growth, with increases seen in every region of the world, and growth at seven of Newell's top 10 brands. Likewise, both gross and operating margins were up compared with the prior year, despite increased inflation pressure.
Peterson, who took the helm in 2023 and initiated the company's turnaround strategy, says he's proud of the progress that the company has made "and we're excited to now have the company back to top-line growth and market share gains."
Investors seem to agree: Although the stock remains well below its prepandemic highs, the shares have jumped nearly 38% in 2026, and are up 50% in the past year. Newell was initially falling after the results Friday, but then lifted and was trading up 0.5% at recent check.
"We've been a show-me story, where people understand our strategy but they want to see it in the financial results," Peterson says.
That evidence was delayed as the company struggled with tariffs, and commodity price spikes in recent years, but is now becoming more obvious as "we're able to report a second consecutive quarter of top-line growth, guide to a third quarter of top-line growth and sustainably get back to market share growth."
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