Earnings call transcript: cbdMD Q3 2025 earnings miss drives stock down

cbdMD Inc. (NASDAQ:YCBD), with a market capitalization of $5.44 million, reported a challenging third quarter for 2025, with an earnings per share (EPS) of -$0.21, missing analysts’ expectations. Revenue fell short at $4.61 million compared to the forecasted $5.47 million, leading to a revenue surprise of -15.72%. This financial miss led to a sharp decline in stock price, which fell 16.9% immediately post-announcement and continued to drop in aftermarket trading. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company is currently trading at a low revenue valuation multiple, suggesting potential value opportunity despite recent challenges.

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Key Takeaways

• cbdMD missed revenue expectations by 15.72%, reporting $4.61 million against a forecast of $5.47 million.
• The stock price fell 16.9% post-earnings, with further declines in aftermarket trading.
• The company reported a net loss of $895,000, contrasting with a $459,000 income in the prior year.
• Regulatory scrutiny and sales declines pose significant challenges.
• The Oasis brand expansion and cost-cutting measures offer some positive outlook.

Company Performance

cbdMD faced a tough quarter with a 10.9% year-over-year decrease in total net sales. E-commerce and wholesale sales dropped by 7.7% and 17.1%, respectively. Despite these challenges, the company maintained a gross profit margin of 61%, flat sequentially. The year-to-date net loss was significantly reduced from $3.5 million to $1.3 million, indicating some progress in operational efficiency. InvestingPro data shows the company’s Financial Health Score stands at 1.84 (FAIR), with particularly strong performance in growth metrics despite current market challenges.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $4.61 million, down 10.9% year-over-year
• Earnings per share: -$0.21
• Gross profit margin: 61%
• Net loss: $895,000

Earnings vs. Forecast

cbdMD’s earnings fell short of expectations, with a revenue miss of 15.72%. The company’s financial results indicate a significant deviation from forecasts, highlighting ongoing challenges in achieving growth.

Market Reaction

The stock price reacted negatively to the earnings miss, dropping 16.9% immediately after the announcement. In aftermarket trading, the stock further declined to $0.627, reflecting investor concerns about the company’s financial outlook and regulatory environment. InvestingPro technical indicators suggest the stock is in oversold territory, trading near its 52-week low of $0.59, with a significant 85.61% decline over the past year.

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Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, cbdMD aims to drive direct-to-consumer growth, expand wholesale distribution, and maintain operational discipline. The company expects the Oasis brand’s momentum to build and gross margins to remain in the lower 60% range. However, increased regulatory scrutiny in the CBD/hemp markets could pose challenges. Analyst consensus from InvestingPro shows a moderate outlook, with a price target of $3.00, suggesting significant potential upside if the company can execute its growth strategy effectively.

Executive Commentary

CEO Ronen Kennedy emphasized the company’s structural changes to reverse revenue declines, stating, "We spent the past year making structural changes to reverse a multi-year revenue decline." He also highlighted the potential benefits of regulatory compliance, saying, "Heightened regulatory scrutiny will benefit well-prepared and regulatory compliant companies."

Risks and Challenges

• Regulatory scrutiny in the CBD/hemp markets could impact future growth.
• Continued sales declines in both e-commerce and wholesale segments.
• Market saturation and increased competition in the CBD industry.
• Potential industry consolidation affecting market dynamics.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about strategic partnership opportunities and the regulatory challenges affecting the wholesale business. The company also discussed improvements in marketing customer acquisition costs and expressed caution regarding the Oasis expansion strategy.

Full transcript - cbdMD Inc (YCBD) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Good afternoon. Welcome to the CBDMD’s Third Quarter Fiscal twenty twenty five Results Conference Call. This afternoon, the company issued a press release that provided an overview of its third quarter results, which followed the filings of its quarterly report on Form 10 Q. Today’s conference call is being recorded and will be available online along with our earnings press release covering our financial results and non GAAP presentation at cbdmds.com in accordance with CBDMD’s retention policies. All participants on this call will be in a listen only mode.

The call will be followed by a question and answer session. At this time, I would now like to turn the conference over to Brad Whitford, the company’s Chief Accounting Officer. Brad, please go ahead.

Brad Whitford, Chief Accounting Officer, CBDMD: Thank you, Ranju, and thank you all for joining the cbdMD’s June fiscal twenty twenty five earnings call and update. On the call today, we also have Ronen Kennedy, our CEO and Chief Financial Officer. We’d like to remind everyone that various remarks about future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward looking statements for purposes of safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. CbdMD cautions that these forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated, including risks described in the company’s annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended 09/30/2024, and our other filings with the SEC, all of which can be reviewed on the company’s website at www.cbdmd.com or on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Any forward looking statements made on this conference call speak only as of today’s date, Thursday, 08/14/2025, and CVDMD does not intend to update any of these forward looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that would occur after today’s date, except as they may be required by federal securities laws.

With that, I’d like to turn the call over to Ronen.

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today. This quarter was a mix of continued transformation, important progress and some short term challenges that we were addressing head on. While our financial results didn’t meet our own standard, the actions we’ve taken over the past several months are already showing encouraging signs that our trajectory is improving. The big picture is this, we spent the past year making structural changes to reverse a multi year revenue decline, streamline operations and strengthen our capital structure. Those efforts have positioned us with a healthier balance sheet, near more agile organization and more focused growth strategy.

Our third quarter was about putting those changes in motion, rebuilding our marketing execution, expanding Oasis distribution and navigating unusual active regulatory environment that affected parts of our wholesale business. On the operational front, our Oasis brand continues to be a focus of our growth strategy. Since the end of Q3, we added Tennessee and Minnesota to our distribution footprint, bringing distribution up to seven states with several others in the pipeline. These are high potential markets with consumer demographics aligned with our target profile for functional alcohol free social beverages. Shipments to these states are scheduled for August with in market availability in September.

Oasis is an entry in one of the fast growing segments of the beverage market. The THC self serve category is growing rapidly. We remain encouraged by the feedback we’re getting from distributors and consumers. Our direct to consumer sales for Oasis began accelerate in July and helped by more focused digital marketing approach, stronger influencer partnerships and optimized e commerce files. In wholesale, we faced some short term disruptions from shifting regulations in certain states, which caused hesitation or delays in orders from some accounts.

We view this as temporary, but it did have an impact on Q3 revenue. In response, our sales teams have been proactively securing new retail commitments, deepening relationships with the most supportive accounts and adjusting our geographic focus to prioritize states with stable regulatory environment. Across our legacy CBDMD and POS CVE lines, we continue to optimize our skew mix, streamline our supply chain and focus marketing on high margin, high velocity products. Our ATX functional mushroom line remains smaller contributor, but has a long term strategic role as the category matures and provides a platform to diversify into other non cannabinoid botanicals. Regulatory activity has been unusually high in recent months, both at the state and federal level.

In some states proposed or enacted changes have created confusion in the market, which in turn impacted wholesale order patterns. Rather than be reactive, we’ve been proactive. CBMD is actively engaged with industry associations lobbying directly in key state capitals and mobilizing our customer base to communicate with lawmakers. Our message is clear, responsible regulation that protects consumers also protects legitimate businesses and supports economic growth. At the national level, we’re encouraged by signs of progress on the Farm Bill and by recent statements from the White House regarding cannabis schedule.

If enacted as expected, these changes could create clear, more stable operating environment and expand market opportunities. In the big picture, we believe heightened regulatory scrutiny will benefit well prepared and regulatory compliant companies such as CBDMD. We believe brands with deep compliance expertise, robust quality systems and the ability to adapt quickly will gain share as weaker players exit. This environment could also accelerate industry consolidation, something we see as potential growth lever for CBDMD, given our clean balance sheet and improved financial flexibility. One of CBDMD’s key strengths is our ability to operate across multiple categories.

CBD wellness products, pet CBD, functional mushroom supplements and now hemp derived THC beverages. This multi category approach gives us diversified revenue streams and the ability to shift resources toward the highest growth opportunities. Operationally, we believe our gross margins remain among the strongest in our peer group, thanks to disciplined cost control and scalable supply chain and efficient go to market strategy. Financially, the elimination of preferred dividend obligations and simplification of our capital structure means we can focus more attention into growth activities. I’ll now turn things over to Brad for an overview of financials.

Brad Whitford, Chief Accounting Officer, CBDMD: Thanks, Ronan. Total net sales for the 2025 were $4,600,000 representing a 10.9% decrease from the prior year comparative quarter total and a 2% decrease from the second quarter. While this is disappointing, we are pleased to see revenues stabilize quarter over quarter. Our quarterly e commerce direct to consumer business was $3,600,000 in the 2025, representing a decrease of $300,000 or 7.7% over the prior year quarter. In the 2025, e commerce represented 78% of our total net sales versus 76% in the prior year comparative quarter.

Our wholesale business generated $1,000,000 of net sales for the 2025, down 17.1% as compared to $1,200,000 for the comparative quarter in fiscal twenty twenty four. State level regulatory uncertainty impacted our core wholesale business and momentum of our Oasis brand. For the 2025, our gross profit remained healthy at 61% or essentially flat sequentially from the previous quarter. Our SG and A expenses for the 2025 totaled $3,700,000 and remained flat versus the prior year comparative quarter. Year over year, our marketing expense increased while we were able to reduce payroll and eliminate our headquarters rent.

For the nine months ending 06/30/2025, SG and A expenses totaled $10,700,000 down almost $1,900,000 year to date. Overall, this resulted in a loss from operations of approximately 905,000 for the 2025 as compared to a loss from operations of $382,000 in the prior year period. After adjustments to the fair value of the promissory notes and interest expense, net loss for the 2025 totaled $895,000 as compared to income of $459,000 in the prior year period. Year to date, we’ve cut our net loss almost in half down from $3,500,000 loss in fiscal twenty twenty four to $1,300,000 in 2025. Our non GAAP adjustments to operating expenses for the 2025 include $1,000 in non cash employee stock expense and $280,000 in depreciation and amortization expense, resulting in a non GAAP adjusted EBITDA loss of $624,000 for the 2025 as compared to an $84,000 non GAAP adjusted EBITDA loss in the 2024.

We had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $1,100,000 and working capital of approximately $2,000,000 on 06/30/2025, as compared to $2,400,000 in cash and a working capital deficit of approximately $2,200,000 on 09/30/2024. The main factor contributing to the improvement in our net working capital is the elimination of the accrued preferred dividends that were short term liability on our balance sheet. We invested an additional $300,000 in inventory during the quarter as we continue to bolster a few key SKUs and continue to prepare to roll out Oasis inventory to distributors in the fourth quarter with several new state distribution contracts that are now in place. We continue to focus on improving our working capital and managing our cash carefully. With that, I’ll turn the call back over to Ronen.

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Thank you, Brad. Looking to the remainder of fiscal twenty twenty five and into 2026, our priorities are clear. First, drive sustained direct to consumer growth by leveraging our restructuring marketing team, refining acquisition strategies and building brand communities around Oasis and CBDMD. Second, expand wholesale distribution jurisdictions with favorable regulatory environment, deepening penetration of existing accounts while adding new retail partners. Third, maintain operational discipline to preserve margins and ensure capital efficiency.

Finally, evaluating strategic opportunities, including partnerships, acquisitions, or category expansions that can deliver incremental growth and shareholder value. We expect momentum in Oasis to build as distribution matures and customer awareness increases. We also see opportunities to cross sell Oasis into our existing retail accounts for CBD and D products and vice versa creating synergies across our portfolio. In closing, this quarter represents a period of a heavy lifting and execution against our reset strategy. We’re seeing early signs that those efforts are working, especially in the Oasis growth and improving customer acquisition at cbdMD.

While challenges remain, particularly on the regulatory front, we believe the long term outlook remains strong. The combination of cleaner capital structure, category leading brands and focused execution plan gives us confidence in our ability to deliver improved results in the quarters ahead. I want to thank our employees for the resiliency and dedication, our retail and distribution partners for their continued trust and our shareholders for their ongoing support as we position CBDMD for sustainable profitable growth. Now I’m happy to open up the call for questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from the line of Adam Baldo with Lismore Partners LLC. Please go ahead.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Brad, thanks for taking my questions.

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Hi, Adam. Sure.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: I want to start on the strategic side. With the capital structure cleaned up from the preferred stock conversion at common, you offered commentary on last quarter’s call about the kinds of strategic activity the Board of Management might find to be attractive going forward. Can you offer any updates today on the Board’s thinking and strategic activities progress over the last quarter?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Look, we have seen a pretty significant increase in opportunities that we’re looking at. Continue to diligence them and look at what opportunities we think have reasonable execution risk and can be accretive for our shareholder base. So we’re encouraged by the increased volume, but can’t really comment at this point about any further discussions that we’re at.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Fair enough. But basically the profile of the right strategic partners is pretty much unchanged from what you articulated last quarter. Is that fair?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: That’s fair.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Okay. Switching gears to the reverse stock split for a minute. Obviously, when you all did the conversion of the preferred common and got the shareholder vote in support of that, You did a concurrent share reverse split on the common that you hoped would achieve a sustained trading price in the stock above $1 that hasn’t materialized. So should we expect in the near term another shareholder proposal on a further reverse stock split of, let’s say, four, five or six to one to get us sustainably above that dollar trading price?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: At this point, we can’t comment about any future stock splits, but we are constantly evaluating sort of what we can do to continue to drive interest and share appreciation.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Okay. Switching gears on the financial side, can you all provide any more specificity around the drivers of the 500 basis point year over year decline in the gross margin in the latest quarter. And then you had a bit of an uptick about $200,000 in the SG and A expense in the latest quarter relative to the $3,500,000 that had prevailed, pardon me, over the prior three quarters? And any color on that would also be helpful. Thanks.

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Sure. So on the gross margin side of things, I think what you’ve seen, especially over last year, you did see some absorption losses with lower revenues. We also incurred sort of an increase in our warehousing costs as when we re signed the lease extension. So we saw increase in costs that go into kind of our gross margins related to that. And then I think in particular this quarter we did incur some incremental packaging related expenses as we were dealing with some of the regulation whiplash on state level kind of requirements that came out as we were trying to react quickly.

I think what I would say is Oasis continues to grow, does not have the same gross margin percent as our traditional CBDMD business. So I would expect some kind of averaging down a little bit as we go, but still expect as revenue grows, we should be able to get above on the overhead absorption side of things. On the SG and A, we did spend a little bit more on the marketing side as we were rebuilding our marketing team. And then I think we did have an increase. We had a catch up in sort of an insurance accrual that did hit this quarter a little bit that impacted our SG and A costs.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Okay. And so going forward, can you give any sort of guidance range for gross margin over the next couple of quarters Oasis scales? I know it’s a little hard because it’s scaling quickly and you’re gaining a lot of distribution. But I mean should we expect a low 60% kind of gross margin going forward? Or might it pick back up a little bit as some of the issues from the last fiscal quarter around regulatory whiplash hopefully would dissipate?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: I would say for the near term, sort of in the lower half of the 60s, and our goal is constantly to focus on margin improvement opportunities to make sure that we can get back a few margin points to get back to where we’ve been.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Okay, thanks. Best of luck.

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Tom McGovern with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.

Tom McGovern, Analyst, Maxim Group: Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question. Yes, so let’s start with the wholesale channel. You guys mentioned how the shifting state regulations has caused a little bit of uncertainty and maybe a decline in confidence among your partners. Just curious how you guys are adjusting your wholesale strategy moving forward.

Ronen, you included that as one of your key drivers of growth or key focus at the end of the call. So I just wanted to if you could provide any color on how you expect to stabilize that in the back half of the year or maybe target more specific markets where regulations are a little bit more friendly for you guys?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Yes. Look, Thomas, think, perfect example like Georgia came out, they made a change and sort of that you have to have an approved Georgia lab. Most of the industry was using labs that weren’t necessarily approved at first and created chaos to make sure that everything was tested by an approved lab, then they made some label changes. So and so I think I think there just was this, you know, ninety day period where, you know, people weren’t quite sure and like, you know, with the product, do they have the right, you know, test testing lab associated with it? Do they have the right updated labels?

So I think as we’re going through this process and getting product back out there, it’s spending time with our customers and making sure that our team is on top of the regs. We’re reacting quickly to provide them the updates that they need. So they’re confident that they understand the rules and they’re starting to sell through as well. But I think as we track, I think there’s 26 states or something like that over the last several months that have proposed or enacted regulation. I think we’re looking at states that I think we’re trying to make sure we focus on states where we think the opportunity is big enough, but also making sure that we’re staying ahead of rules and regs, talking with the regulators, working with trade groups, so that we’re focused on the states that we think we’re going to have the highest opportunity to grow our revenue on a go forward basis.

Tom McGovern, Analyst, Maxim Group: Understood. Appreciate that insight. So just kind of to tie it up better, as you guys look at this, this had 26 states, you gave Georgia as the example. But in terms of stability as we return to maybe a more normal wholesale trajectory, is that something you see as a second half twenty twenty five event or something that we’ll have to wait until 2026 to really kind of see flush out?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Our mission is to grow on a quarterly basis. And so, hope that that continues to accelerate over time. So, mean, I guess the further out, I would expect stronger growth, but we’re focusing every day on building our wholesale business state by state.

Tom McGovern, Analyst, Maxim Group: Got it. I appreciate that. So moving on to the marketing, you guys discussed the marketing overhaul contributing to that uptick in SG and A. You also mentioned in that there was some signs of improvement with your digital marketing team or digital marketing strategy rather than your marketing team. Just curious if you could elaborate a little bit more maybe some key KPIs you guys are looking at or any consumer behavior trends that you guys have identified that will kind of supports your confidence in your revised marketing team and strategy?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Sure. I think, look, we spent a lot of time since we added our new leadership in March. We’ve sort of changed out certain parties. We’ve really looked at our customer journey or pages or copies or videos, everything sort of from the bottoms up. And I think what we’ve been able to find is sort of since July, we’ve seen a reduction in sort of our CAC for our consumer and we’re acquiring more new customers for less spend than we were during the third fiscal quarter.

So I think it’s showing promising signs. We’ve got to be careful to do it in a smart way and not put gas on the fire too quickly because I think it has the risk of being inefficient. So I think we’re very cautiously approaching this. But I think we’re very encouraged with the level of details and how our team is managing the numbers and the metrics and really focusing on that customer acquisition and retention and specificity that we haven’t been in over the last few prior quarters.

Tom McGovern, Analyst, Maxim Group: Understood. And then final question for me is on Herbal Oasis. So congrats on expanding it into seven states now with those shipments coming out in August and retail availability in September. That’s really exciting for you guys. Just curious what we should be expecting in the back half of the year.

Are you guys looking at continuing kind of what I would describe as somewhat aggressive expansion strategy for this getting into more markets and more states? Or is it kind of similar to maybe the marketing strategy that you guys seem to be prudent about where you’re spending, what states you’re trying to get into, particularly as regulatory agencies on a state level continue to propose legislation that might present challenges or hurdles to you guys as you enter new markets?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Great question. We’re really focused. Yes, I think we’re trying to be opportunistic about the states that we have opportunities in and the retail partnerships that we get access to. We’re very much focused on the Southeast and making sure that we can drive the right sell through. And as long as our sell through continues to be robust, it will keep us in a good spot.

So our goal is as we’re launching into new territories, we want to make sure we are careful about focusing on our territory that we’re in and being the right partner for both our retailers and distributors, but still taking advantage if there are opportunities to expand to new states.

Tom McGovern, Analyst, Maxim Group: Understood. Again, appreciate you guys taking the time to answer all my questions.

Conference Operator: Absolutely. Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Adam Waldo with Lismore Partners LLC. Please go ahead.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Just a couple of quick cleanup items. You all have seen a $700,000 increase in your inventory so far this fiscal year, 300,000 just over the last quarter on a linked quarter basis. Can you give us a little more color? Is that highly driven by the Oasis product line? Or are you building inventory in the traditional business as well?

And do we think we’ve now reached kind of a plateau in the inventory build that’s going to be needed to support both businesses?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Yes. Good question, Adam. I think we alluded I guess there’s two parts to that answer. I think the last quarter we highlighted we ran into a little bit of trouble early in the second quarter because we ran our inventory down a little too low and we’re out of stock of some of our key products. So we did boost inventory early in the quarter to make sure that we maintain sort of the right level of stock for our core SKUs.

And then more recently, we have boosted our Oasis inventory in anticipation of some of these product or some of these regional launches. So I would say, I think we’re probably reasonably well positioned for now. But depending on the velocity of growth, I think it could require minor inventory investment.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Okay. Okay. And then final thing for me is just as it relates to the Herbal Oasis product line, while Thomas was asking his questions, I finished skimming through the 10 Q that you just filed this afternoon. And I didn’t see any mention of that business in terms of breaking it out in any kind of segment reporting having crossed the materiality threshold. Last quarter, Ron, you said you hoped it would cross the materiality threshold this come in the current quarter, I.

E. 2025. Do you still expect it will cross the materiality threshold this in the current quarter?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: I guess I’m going have to wait and see. Hate not to answer, Adam, but I want to just be careful I don’t get out of my skis.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Okay. Fair. So unclear in the current quarter whether we’ll hit the materiality threshold. If we don’t, will you start to provide some additional disclosure on it anyway in your financial reporting with the fiscal fourth quarter report in November? Or might it be until fiscal twenty twenty six before we get a look at that segment or that business’ economics?

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Look, I think we’ll probably make that determination closer to our next filing. And I think just want to make sure that once we start reporting, we’re required to maintain reporting. So I think we want to make sure we feel we’re in a good position to provide strong regular KPIs around that at the time.

Adam Baldo, Analyst, Lismore Partners LLC: Okay, fair enough. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Ron Kennedy for closing remarks.

Ronen Kennedy, CEO and CFO, CBDMD: Thank you again to our shareholders for support and everyone for attending today’s call. We look forward to our next earnings call in December. Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. This brings to a close today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines. Thank you for participating and have a pleasant day.

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