Morinaga&Co (2201) Q2 2024 earnings summary

Executive summary

• First-half net sales reached a record ¥109.608bn, up 11.4% YoY; operating income rose 38.5% to ¥14.167bn and profit attributable to owners of parent rose 55.8% to ¥10.260bn.

• Growth across domestic and overseas businesses, price revisions and stronger U.S. contributions supported earnings despite higher input costs.

Financial highlights

• Gross profit was ¥46.125bn; ordinary income rose 37.1% to ¥14.397bn.

• Gross margin was 42.1%, up 0.6 percentage points YoY; operating margin was 12.9%, up 2.5 points.

• Operating cash flow was ¥17.868bn, investing cash flow -¥8.427bn and financing cash flow -¥10.388bn.

Outlook and guidance

• Full-year guidance was raised to net sales ¥210.0bn, operating income ¥18.7bn, ordinary income ¥19.1bn and profit attributable to owners of parent ¥13.6bn.

• Revised guidance exceeds the prior forecast by ¥6.0bn in sales, ¥1.4bn in operating income, ¥1.3bn in ordinary income and ¥1.4bn in parent-attributable profit.

• Second-half sales are forecast at ¥100.4bn, up 4.6% YoY, while operating income is forecast at ¥4.5bn, down 9.4%, as growth and business-foundation investment accelerates.

• Full-year forecast assumes ¥139.58 per U.S. dollar; the assumed October–December rate was raised to ¥144 from ¥133 in the initial forecast.