PARIS — L’Oréal’s fourth-quarter 2025 sales increased 6 percent on an organic basis, accelerating for the third straight quarter.
The uptick was in line with Bloomberg’s consensus, but fell short of J.P. Morgan’s estimate of 7 percent gains and Jefferies’ of a 7.5 percent rise.
In the three months ended Dec. 31, sales at the Paris-based maker of Lancôme, Garnier and CeraVe products were up 1.5 percent in reported terms to 11.25 billion euros, benefiting from business in North America and Europe. Meanwhile, sales in North Asia remained almost flat.
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Full-year sales at L’Oréal, which released results Thursday evening after market close, advanced 1.3 percent on a reported basis and 4 percent in like-for-like terms, spurred by the group’s Professional Products division.
In 2025, company sales reached 44.05 billion euros, while net profit was down 4.4 percent to 6.13 billion euros. Operating profit increased 2.4 percent to 8.89 billion euros, representing a 20 basis-point improvement.
Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal chief executive officer, in a statement described 2025 as “a defining year for L’Oréal.”
“As we had promised, organic top-line growth accelerated quarter after quarter, boosted by the step-up in our launch plan and supported by a gradually improving beauty market,” he said. “At plus 4 percent, L’Oréal grew once again ahead of the market; a key highlight was the strong second-half recovery in our two largest countries, the U.S. and China, while we continued our emerging conquest. We delivered another year of record gross and operating margins as our focus on efficiency gains allowed us to offset adverse currency and tariff trends.”
Hieronimus said L’Oréal profoundly transformed last year. This was through advancements in artificial intelligence, strengthening research-and-innovation capabilities and implementing IT transformation. The group also undertook its most transformational M&A move to date, with Kering Beauté.
Hieronimus said that acquisition “will further bolster our leadership in luxury beauty, adding highly desirable brands with significant growth potential.”
According to the executive, the group’s increasing its stake in Galderma to 20 percent from 10 percent “will allow L’Oréal to take part in the fast-growing market of aesthetics, a key adjacency to our beauty business.”
Hieronimus said L’Oréal is queued up for further acceleration.
“In 2026, despite the macro uncertainties, we are optimistic about the outlook for the global beauty market and confident in our ability to keep outperforming it thanks to L’Oréal’s multidivisional strategy and to achieve another year of growth in sales and profit,” he said.
L’Oréal will hold its annual analyst meeting in person at headquarters in the Paris suburb of Clichy on Friday morning.
“Most important will be L’Oréal’s view of the global cosmetics market for 2026,” wrote Barclays European consumer staples analyst Warren Ackerman in a note. “We think the market will move back to the 30-year average of 4.5 percent in 2026 (vs. 3 percent in 2025). Our view is premised on the U.S. and Chinese cosmetics markets improving.”