Wolverine World Wide, Inc. is a multinational enterprise specializing in the design, manufacturing, sourcing, marketing, licensing, and distribution of footwear, apparel, and ...
Wolverine World Wide, Inc. is a multinational branded footwear and lifestyle-products company with roots extending back to 1883, when G. A. Krause and Fredrick Hirth established the Hirth-Krause Company in Michigan. The business developed from leather and shoe-accessory operations into a global brand platform focused on footwear, apparel, and accessories. ...Wolverine World Wide, Inc. is a multinational branded footwear and lifestyle-products company with roots extending back to 1883, when G. A. Krause and Fredrick Hirth established the Hirth-Krause Company in Michigan. The business developed from leather and shoe-accessory operations into a global brand platform focused on footwear, apparel, and accessories. Its headquarters are located at 9341 Courtland Drive N.E. in Rockford, Michigan, and its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol WWW.
The company’s portfolio covers several consumer and occupational categories. Merrell is associated with outdoor and performance footwear, while Saucony focuses on running and athletic products. Wolverine develops durable work and lifestyle footwear, and Bates serves professional and uniform footwear markets. Other brands in the portfolio include Sperry, Hush Puppies, Keds, Chaco, Stride Rite, Sweaty Betty, Hytest, Cat-branded products, and Harley-Davidson-branded footwear. In addition to shoes, the company sells apparel and accessories, including bags, eyewear, gloves, socks, watches, and other licensed products. Its licensing strategy extends brand reach into categories that may not be manufactured directly by Wolverine Worldwide.
Wolverine uses a multi-channel commercial model. Products are sold through company-operated stores and digital commerce platforms, as well as department stores, national chains, specialty retailers, independent stores, catalog businesses, mass merchants, uniform suppliers, government customers, distributors, licensees, and joint ventures. Supplied company information indicated approximately 143 physical retail locations and 65 consumer-direct e-commerce platforms as of January 1, 2022. Operations span the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Canada, and Latin America, with activities organized through Wolverine Michigan Group and Wolverine Boston Group segments.
Christopher E. Hufnagel serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. He joined the company in 2008 and became CEO in 2023. Wolverine Worldwide employs more than 3,000 people globally, placing it in the 2,001-5,000 employee category. Based on the supplied trailing-twelve-month data, the company had approximately $1.55 billion in market capitalization, a 47.1% gross margin, an 8.6% EBIT margin, a 5.4% net margin, and an enterprise value of roughly $2.22 billion. Its reported trailing price-to-earnings ratio was approximately 15.1, while leverage remained material, with debt-to-equity of about 1.89 and net debt-to-EBITDA of approximately 3.42. The company also reported a $0.40 annual dividend per share. These figures indicate a brand-intensive business with meaningful intangible assets, global sourcing and inventory requirements, retail exposure, and financial sensitivity to consumer demand, wholesale conditions, product innovation, brand strength, input costs, freight, currency movements, and debt management.
Operator: Greetings and welcome to the Wolverine World Wide Second Quarter Fiscal 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jared Filippone, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.
Jared Filippone: Good morning and welcome to our second quarter fiscal 2026 conference call. On the call today are Chris Hufnagel, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Taryn Miller, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release announcing our financial results for the second quarter of 2026 and guidance for fiscal year 2026. The press release is available on many news sites and can be viewed on our investor relations website at investors.wolverineworldwide.com. This morning's press release and comments made during today's earnings call include non-GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures, including references to the ongoing business and constant currency revenue growth rates, were reconciled to the most comparable GAAP financial measures in attached tables within the body of the release or on our investor relations website. I'd also like to remind you that statements describing the company's expectations, plans, predictions, and projections, such as those regarding the company's outlook for fiscal year 2026, growth opportunities, and trends expected to affect the company's future performance made during today's conference call are forward-looking statements under U.S. securities laws. As a result, we must caution you that there are a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These important risk factors are identified in the company's SEC filings and in our press releases. All revenue growth rates will be cited on a constant currency basis unless otherwise stated. With that, I will now turn the call over to Chris Hufnagel.
Christopher Hufnagel: Thanks, Jared. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on today's call. In the second quarter, our business results continue to track ahead of our expectations, driven by the team's strong execution of our global brand building model. We delivered better than anticipated revenue, growing 6% against double-digit growth last year, with adjusted earnings per share growing 14%, reflecting healthy SG&A leverage, while at the same time investing in our strategic priorities and key growth drivers. Merrell and Saucony, representing approximately 2/3 of our business, continued to lead the way with revenue up 10% and 9% in the quarter, respectively. We continue to make progress in building better brands, delivering compelling products, investing more in demand creation and telling better stories, managing the marketplace more effectively, all leading to elevating our brand's positions in their respective markets. As a result, we're seeing the cumulative, tangible effects of our consistent efforts. …