Earnings call transcript: Levi Strauss Q3 2025 beats EPS forecast, stock dips

Levi Strauss & Co. reported its financial results for the third quarter of 2025, surpassing earnings expectations with an adjusted diluted EPS of $0.34, compared to the forecasted $0.30. The company also exceeded revenue predictions, posting $1.54 billion against an expected $1.5 billion. Despite these positive results, the stock saw a slight decline of 0.49% in after-hours trading, closing at $24.66, as investors processed the mixed signals from the earnings call and market conditions.

Key Takeaways

• Levi Strauss reported a 7% organic net revenue growth, driven primarily by international markets.
• The company raised its full-year EPS guidance to a range of $1.27 to $1.32.
• Gross margins expanded by 110 basis points, reaching 61.7%.
• Despite beating earnings expectations, the stock fell 0.49% in after-hours trading.

Company Performance

Levi Strauss demonstrated solid performance in Q3 2025, with a notable 7% growth in organic net revenue. This growth was largely driven by international markets, which accounted for 75% of the increase. The company’s gross margin improved to 61.7%, reflecting a 110 basis point expansion, while the adjusted EBIT margin stood at 11.8%. Notably, InvestingPro data reveals a perfect Piotroski Score of 9, indicating exceptional financial strength, with strong liquidity evidenced by a healthy current ratio of 1.48. The tops and women’s business segments saw significant growth, contributing to the overall positive performance.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $1.54 billion, up from the forecasted $1.5 billion.
• Earnings per share: $0.34, exceeding the forecast by 13.33%.
• Gross Margin: 61.7%, a 110 basis point increase.
• Adjusted EBIT Margin: 11.8%.

Earnings vs. Forecast

Levi Strauss outperformed expectations with an EPS of $0.34, surpassing the forecasted $0.30 by 13.33%. Revenue also exceeded projections, coming in at $1.54 billion against an anticipated $1.5 billion. This marks a significant positive surprise for the company, reflecting strong operational execution and market demand.

Market Reaction

Despite the earnings beat, Levi Strauss’ stock dipped by 0.49% in after-hours trading, closing at $24.66. This slight decline may reflect investor caution amidst broader market trends and sector performance. The stock remains near its 52-week high of $24.82, with an impressive six-month return of 66.85%. According to InvestingPro analysis, the stock appears slightly undervalued based on its Fair Value calculations, suggesting potential upside opportunity. The platform offers 14 additional exclusive ProTips and comprehensive valuation metrics in its Pro Research Report, available to subscribers.

Outlook & Guidance

Levi Strauss raised its full-year organic net revenue guidance to approximately 6% and adjusted its full-year EPS guidance to a range of $1.27 to $1.32. The company anticipates continued momentum in the holiday season and plans further international expansion, particularly in Asia.

Executive Commentary

"We are transforming into a best-in-class DTC-first denim lifestyle retailer," said Harmit Singh, CFO, highlighting the company’s strategic shift. CEO Michelle Gass noted, "While we’re historically built on denim, we’re building our future on denim lifestyle," emphasizing Levi’s broader market ambitions.

Risks and Challenges

• Supply chain disruptions could impact future performance.
• Economic uncertainty may affect consumer spending patterns.
• Market saturation in key regions could limit growth opportunities.
• Fluctuations in raw material costs might pressure margins.
• Competitive pressures from other global apparel brands remain a challenge.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the company’s pricing strategies and European market performance. Levi Strauss reported modest pricing actions and expressed confidence in its European operations, attributing resilience to strong brand recognition and strategic initiatives. The company also addressed its ongoing distribution center transformation, expected to complete by Q1 2026.

Full transcript - Levi Strauss & Co Class A (LEVI) Q3 2025:

Conference Moderator: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Levi Strauss & Co.’s third quarter fiscal 2025 earnings conference call for the period ending August 31, 2025. All parties will be in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session, at which time instructions will follow. This conference call is being recorded and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the company. This conference call is being broadcast over the internet, and a replay of the webcast will be accessible for one quarter on the company’s website, levistrauss.com. I would now like to turn the call over to Aida Orphan, Vice President of Investor Relations at Levi Strauss & Co.

Aida Orphan, Vice President of Investor Relations, Levi Strauss & Co.: Thank you for joining us on the call today to discuss the results for our third quarter fiscal 2025. Joining me on today’s call are Michelle Gass, our President and CEO, and Harmit Singh, our Chief Financial and Growth Officer. We’d like to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations, and those statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in our reports filed with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements. Additionally, during this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures, which are not intended to be a substitute for our GAAP results. Definitions of these measures and reconciliations to their most comparable GAAP measure are included in our earnings release available on the IR section of our website, investors.levistrauss.com.

Please note that Michelle and Harmit will be referencing organic net revenues or constant currency numbers unless otherwise noted, and the information provided is based on continuing operations. This call is being webcast on our IR website, and a replay of this call will be available on the website shortly. Today’s call is scheduled for one hour, so please limit yourself to one question at a time to give others the opportunity to have their questions addressed. I’d like to turn the call over to Michelle.

Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.: Thank you and welcome, everyone. What I’ll share today builds on the themes I’ve been emphasizing this year as we pivot to become a DTC-first, head-to-toe denim lifestyle retailer. The consistent execution of our strategic priority is driving a meaningful inflection in our financial performance. Today, I’m pleased to share that we delivered another very strong quarter with upside across the P&L, giving us the confidence to raise our full-year revenue and EPS guidance. In Q3, we delivered our fourth consecutive quarter of high single-digit organic revenue growth. Strength was once again broad-based across our business, including DTC and wholesale, international and domestic, women’s and men’s, and tops and bottoms. Our growth was led by continued strong sales and profitability in our direct-to-consumer channel, up 9%, fueled by strong comp growth as well as solid performance in global wholesale.

Our largest market, the U.S., grew 3%, and our international business was up 9%, led by an acceleration in Asia. We continue to see robust performance in our core, as well as outsized growth in our key focus areas like women’s and tops. The results we’ve delivered this quarter, against an increasingly complex backdrop, are yet another proof point that our strategies are working. Looking ahead, there are several factors that give me even more conviction that our momentum will continue. First, our narrow focus enables us to maximize the full potential of the Levi’s brand. We will continue to build momentum through impactful marketing campaigns, strategic partnerships, and innovative collaborations, ensuring that the brand remains firmly at the center of culture. Second, the total addressable market for denim is large and growing as consumer preferences continue to shift towards casualization.

As the definitive market leader, we are well positioned to take advantage and drive growth. Third, our denim leadership puts us in a prime position to define and own head-to-toe denim lifestyle, further expanding our addressable market. As we drive this momentum forward, we’ll continue to deliver an innovative and robust product pipeline across genders and categories. Fourth, our DTC-first strategy is bringing us closer to the consumer and generating consistent and significant growth, while we have also stabilized and grown our wholesale business. Both channels are seeing strong improvements in profitability. Fifth, while international already comprises nearly 60% of our total business, there are still untapped opportunities for us to grow, particularly in Asia, where our business has momentum and the opportunity for continued expansion is considerable.

Underpinning all of this is our culture of performance, with a sharpened focus on operating with rigor and executing with excellence, from go-to-market efficiencies and more productive store operations to end-to-end supply chain improvements. I will now turn to highlights from the third quarter in the context of our strategies. All numbers that Harmit and I will reference are on an organic, continuing operations basis. Let’s start with our first strategy, being brand-led. Levi’s had another strong quarter of growth. In the quarter, we launched the final chapter of the Reimagine campaign with Beyoncé. This campaign delivered as intended, fueling momentum across the business, specifically driving growth in our Levi’s women’s business, up 12% year to date. In August, we debuted our new global campaign starring Shaboozey, underscoring our relevancy and authenticity with men.

The campaign showcases our most iconic products: the 501, the trucker jacket, and the Western shirt, and we’re pleased with how this campaign is being received by our fans. In addition, we also cultivated enthusiasm for the brand through a broad range of collaborations, including a joint collection with Nike, fusing Levi’s heritage denim craftsmanship with Nike’s athletic sneaker culture. Our collaborations generate brand heat and introduce Levi’s to new consumers. Just this week, we launched a special collection with Toy Story in celebration of their 30th anniversary. Turning to product, our evolution to a head-to-toe denim lifestyle retailer continues to gain momentum, all while strengthening our position as the global authority in denim. Our Levi’s women’s business continues to deliver outsized growth, up 9% in Q3, while our leading Levi’s men’s business grew a solid 5%.

Driven by our diversified fit portfolio, we saw strong growth in our bottoms business, which was up 6%. We’re continuing to inject newness into the looser fit trend with the new baggy utility silhouettes for him and the launch of our baggy dad barrel for her. We’re driving a revival in low rise with our low and super low collection of fits, which are delivering strong growth. As we evolve into denim lifestyle, we’re making meaningful progress on our seasonally relevant assortments as consumers look for more buy-now, wear-now products. Following last year’s reset, tops continue to drive notable growth, up 9%, with strength across women’s and men’s. For the quarter, our shorts business delivered strong growth across genders. We continue to infuse newness into the assortment through fit and fabric innovation, from our linen blend styles to the launch of the 501 curve.

With respect to our premiumization efforts, we began to roll out our elevated Blue Tab premium collection to Europe in early September, following a successful launch in Asia and the U.S. earlier this year. Blue Tab merges Levi’s iconic aesthetic with the refined quality and thoughtful Japanese craftsmanship. Looking to the holiday season, we are well positioned with the right merchandise assortment and the right marketing campaigns. We’re expanding the range of occasions and amplifying the many ways that fans can embrace our denim lifestyle assortment through elevated fabrics, textures, and embellishments. We’re excited to showcase Levi’s through a fresh lens that reflects the season’s full spectrum of style. Now shifting to our strategy to be DTC-first. Global direct-to-consumer sales were up 9%, driven by strong performance in both our stores and online.

We generated high single-digit comp growth fueled by higher UPT, AUR, and full price selling as our expanded denim lifestyle assortment continues to resonate with our consumers around the world. As we continue to grow our DTC channel, we remain focused on doing so profitably with our productivity initiatives resulting in more than 400 basis points of margin expansion in the quarter. We’re pleased with the strong results from our store optimization initiatives, which have improved both the consumer experience and store productivity. We’ve enhanced our in-store lifestyle merchandising to make the store environment more inspiring and shoppable, highlighting our broader assortment of head-to-toe looks. We’ve also been focused on improving our assortment planning and lifecycle management, resulting in lower promotions and higher full price selling.

Additionally, we’re in the process of rolling out a new global selling model for our store team, which, coupled with our enhanced labor scheduling system, is improving the consumer experience and delivering operational efficiencies. We had another quarter of very strong growth in e-com, up 16%, driven by an increase in traffic across all segments. We expect e-commerce to continue to be our fastest growing channel on the path to comprising 15% of our total business, up from just 9% today. In our wholesale channel, net revenues were up 5%, reflecting growth across all segments. In the U.S., the Levi’s brands were up 2% as we continue to invest in top doors and expand and elevate our assortments. Western wear is core to who we are, and we’re pleased to have recently expanded our product assortment with Boot Barn and gained new distribution at Cavender.

We also see opportunities to increase our penetration with premium and specialty accounts as we broaden and elevate our lifestyle assortment. Now turning to our third strategy, powering the portfolio, our international business grew 9% in Q3. Asia accelerated in the quarter, driven by double-digit growth in key markets like India, Japan, Korea, and Turkey. I recently visited several stores across India, Korea, and Japan, and it is clear that consumers are responding to the work we’ve done to ensure the best expression of our denim lifestyle assortment. Japan, in particular, is a market with a very high bar for denim. We’ve been investing in Japan over the past decade, transitioning the market from primarily a wholesale business to now close to 75% DTC.

Walking our stores in Nagoya, Shinjuku, and Harajuku, which are some of our highest volume stores in the world, you’ll see the fullest and most premium expression of the Levi’s brand. Up almost 50% since 2019 and continuing to gain momentum, we remain optimistic about future opportunities in Japan, and we will replicate our successful playbook in this market across the globe. Beyond Yoga was up 2%, and DTC was up 22%, driven by comp, new doors, and e-commerce. Growth in DTC was offset by a decline in wholesale as the team focuses on higher quality sales in the channel. Looking to Q4, we have additional stores opening in Boston, Houston, and two more stores in Northern California, bringing our total store count to 14. We expect Beyond Yoga to end the year up low teens versus prior year.

In closing, we delivered another standout quarter with sales and earnings growth that positions us to increase our outlook for the year. We are fully prepared and well positioned for holiday as we enter the season with momentum. Despite an increasingly uncertain external backdrop, we have several tailwinds that give me confidence in not only delivering a strong finish to 2025, but also another strong year in 2026. Finally, I’d like to thank our incredible, talented, and passionate teams for driving our transformation into the world’s denim lifestyle leader and delivering outstanding service to our fans every day. With that, I will turn it over to Harmit to provide a financial overview of the quarter and our expectations for the remainder of the year. Harmit?

Harmit Singh, Chief Financial and Growth Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.: Thanks, Michelle. In quarter three, we delivered strong financial results exceeding expectations across sales, gross margin, EBIT margin, and EPS. We remain focused on establishing a strong track record of consistent execution and results. The strategic transformation across our organization has enabled us to evolve into a higher-performing company with stronger revenue growth, expanded margins, improved cash flows, and higher returns on invested capital. Given the outperformance in quarter three and continued strong trends, we are also raising our revenue and EPS outlook for the year, despite incorporating higher tariffs than assumed in our previous guidance. Now turning to our quarter three results, net revenue grew 7%, reflecting the power of our diversified business model. International markets drove approximately 75% of our growth, and the U.S. contributed 25%. This international strength reflects our continued expansion and brand resonance in key markets globally, while our U.S. business maintained solid underlying momentum.

By channel, growth was evenly balanced between wholesale and direct-to-consumer, each growing and contributing roughly 50% of our revenue increase. This balanced performance underscores the success of our DTC-first strategy while maintaining strong partnerships in wholesale. By gender, women’s contributed approximately 40% of our growth, with men’s accounting for the balance. We continue to execute against our strategy to capture greater share in our underpenetrated, higher gross margin women’s segment, while a large men’s business continues to generate solid growth as we fuel momentum in the category. Turning to gross margin performance, we delivered another strong quarter with a quarter three record gross margin of 61.7% of net revenues, expanding 110 basis points versus the prior year, more than offsetting 80 basis points of tariff headwind. Three key drivers fuel the continued expansion.

First, our structural business mix continues to evolve favorably with the accelerating shift towards higher margin DTC, international, and women’s categories. Second, targeted pricing actions we have taken across our assortment, as well as higher full price selling and reduced promotional levels in our direct-to-consumer channel as consumers continue to gravitate towards newness. Third, approximately 50 basis points of the upside in gross margin was driven by foreign exchange. While we are judiciously approaching pricing opportunities across our business, in quarter three, we saw a significant increase in units, demonstrating healthy underlying demand for our brand. I’m pleased to report that our adjusted SG&A performance came in line with our expectations, representing less than 50% of total revenue, over 150 basis points improvement from our first half run rate.

The primary factors contributing to the increase in SG&A dollars include higher performance-based compensation, given the momentum in our business, costs associated with our store opening, as well as expenses associated with the transformation of our distribution network. The combination of robust gross margin and our disciplined approach to SG&A management delivered an adjusted EBIT margin of 11.8% and generated $0.34 of adjusted diluted EPS, both ahead of our expectations. Our focus on profitability as we accelerate growth has enabled us to grow both adjusted EBIT and adjusted diluted EPS up approximately 25% to prior year on a year-to-date basis. Now let’s review the key highlights by segment. The Americas’ net revenues were up 7%. Our U.S. business was up 3%, delivering our fifth consecutive quarter of strong growth. DTC grew 6% and now represents over 40% of the U.S. market. U.S.

wholesale net revenues were also up despite the challenges posed by the transition of our U.S. distribution centers. Driven by broad-based strength across the region, LATAM has seen several consecutive quarters of double-digit growth, including Q3, which was up 23%. Americas’ operating margin expanded 50 basis points, driven by gross margin and revenue leverage. Europe’s net revenues were up 3%. All key markets delivered growth, led by a very strong performance in the UK. While weather impacted footfall in June and July, we exited the quarter with strong performance in August, and we continue to expect mid-single-digit growth in Europe for the year. Operating margin grew 80 basis points versus the prior year from strong gross margin expansion. Asia’s net revenues accelerated to up 12%. The segment saw double-digit growth in both DTC and wholesale. Operating margin increased 50 basis points to prior year.

Asia is up 8% on a year-to-date basis, and operating margin for the year is up 40 basis points to prior year. Turning to our shareholder returns program and the balance sheet. In the quarter, we returned $151 million to shareholders, a 118% increase versus last year. We’ve also closed the first phase of the Dockers sale, and with the proceeds, we have implemented a $120 million accelerated share repurchase program and retired approximately 5 million shares, with the remaining shares to be settled by the first quarter of 2026. We have returned $283 million to shareholders year to date, which is substantially higher than our annual cash payout target. For Q4, we declared a dividend of $0.14 per share, which is up 8% to prior year.

We ended the quarter with reported inventory dollars up 12%, driven by purposeful investments ahead of the holiday and higher product costs than a year ago due to tariffs. In unit terms, inventory was up 8% versus last year. As of today, we have 70% of the product in the U.S. needed for holiday. Before turning to guidance, let me briefly share our updated assumptions around tariffs. Our updated guidance reflects the latest tariff rates, which include 30% for China and an increase to approximately 20% for the rest of the world. This is higher than our last assumption, and as a result, we estimate the full-year growth impact of tariffs before mitigation to be approximately a 70 basis point headwind to gross margin compared to 50 basis points previously.

However, given the Q3 results and after mitigation, we continue to expect only a 20 basis point impact to gross margin. This translates to a $0.02 to $0.03 impact to adjusted diluted EPS, unchanged from last quarter’s guidance. As respects to quarter four, this equates to an 80 basis point headwind to gross margin and a $0.03 impact to adjusted diluted EPS. Looking to 2026, we are continuing to take actions to offset the impact of tariffs. As a reminder, these mitigation initiatives include promotion optimization, targeted pricing action, vendor negotiation, and further supply chain diversification. Now I will turn to our outlook for quarter four and then cover the full year.

While we are taking a prudent approach to our outlook, given the complex macro environment and the absence of the 53rd week, which contributed 4 points to the top line in quarter four of 2024, we remain confident in the underlying strength and momentum of our business. In quarter four, we expect organic net revenue growth to be up approximately 1%, and on a two-year stack, this equates to 9% organic growth. Reported net revenues are expected to be down approximately 3% because of non-comparable items, including the 53rd week, Denizen, and footwear, which are no longer included in the revenue base. Gross margin is expected to contract approximately 100 basis points in quarter four, driven by tariffs as well as the impact of the 53rd week. We expect adjusted EBIT margin to be in the range of 12.4% to 12.6%.

We expect the tax rate to be in the low 20s, higher than a year ago, and adjusted diluted EPS to be in the range of $0.36 to $0.38. For the full year, we are taking our revenues up by approximately a percentage point and EPS by $0.02. We now expect reported net revenue growth of approximately 3% for the year, and we have increased our expectations for organic net revenues to approximately 6% up from prior year. We now expect gross margin to expand 100 basis points for the full year, up from the 80 basis points stated in our prior guidance, including the incremental drag from tariffs. We continue to expect adjusted SG&A as a percentage of revenue to end the year at around 50%, and adjusted EBIT margin to be in the range of 11.4% to 11.6%.

As we have previously shared, we continue to expect the tax rate to be about 23%. We are raising our full-year adjusted diluted EPS range by $0.02 to $1.27 to $1.32 for the full year. In closing, our four consecutive quarters of high single-digit growth and raised revenue expectations underscore the strength and resilience of our business. As we accelerate profitable growth, we are transforming into a best-in-class DTC-first denim lifestyle retailer, unlocking new opportunities and delivering greater value for our shareholders. Our disciplined execution and agility have enabled us to deliver 14 consecutive quarters of DTC comp sales, expand margins, drive cash flow, and return significant capital to our shareholders, including the recent accelerated share repurchase and our growing dividend. With our strategic focus on high growth segments, tops, women, international, and DTC, we see a long runway of profitable growth ahead.

Thank you for your continued trust and support. We are more confident than ever in our future. I will now open up the line for Q&A.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you have a question, please press star, then the numbers one-one on your telephone keypad. Due to time constraints, the company requests you ask only one question. If you have an additional question, please queue up again. If at any point your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star one-one again. Our first question comes from the line of Laurent Vasilescu of BNP Paribas. Please go ahead, Laurent.

Oh, good afternoon, Michelle and Harmit. Thank you very much for taking my question. I wanted to ask about your European momentum. We had a major U.S. brand caution about the European marketplace the other week again around increased promotionality. Curious to hear what you’re seeing in this important marketplace. How do you, how are your European pre-books look for next spring? Harmit, just on the Q4 guide, the gross margin down 100 basis points, can you maybe just unpack that a little bit more? What’s the 53rd week impact on the GM and what are the positive offsets? Thank you very much.

Harmit Singh, Chief Financial and Growth Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.: Sure. Laurent, thanks for calling in. Europe is up 3% for the quarter. You heard in my prepared remarks about the weather impact, but as soon as the weather cooled, we saw Europe accelerate to double-digit growth, especially as we exited the quarter. There was some shifting in July and August, but September remains strong. We’ve seen growth in the quarter across both channels. DTC was up 4%, wholesale was up 2%. Some key markets really performed. UK was up high mid-teen, and high single-digit growth in Germany and Italy. If you think across men and women, women continue to be strong in Europe, and the consumer is gravitating towards a broader assortment: looser fits, 501, tops, which is our fastest growing category.

Our view is, unlike the other major brands that you mentioned, we expect to end the year up mid-single digit, and this has accelerated substantially relative to a year ago. September is off to a good start. Our pre-book for spring is up mid-single digit. Having said all that, our operating margins were also up 80 basis points. I think that’s our perspective of Europe. A big shout out to the team on the ground that is working its way through it. On your question, I can broadly talk Q4 guidance, and then I’ll talk gross margins in a minute. On Q4, we expect the momentum of our business to continue, and our view is that fundamentally the underlying trends remain strong. Our Q4 guidance overall is impacted by three things.

The year we’re lapping, which includes the 53rd week, which helps Q4 last year by 4 points in revenue and 20 basis points in gross margin. We do have an incremental headwind on tariffs. It’s impacting gross margin first, unmitigated by 130 basis points and mitigated by about 80 basis points and EPS by $0.03. Had it not been for tariffs, our gross margins in quarter four would have been up. It’s pretty factual. We’re just taking a conservative approach to the quarter given the complex macros. There are tariffs, maybe potential impacts on demand. We are not seeing it as we close out September and the continued transformation of our distribution center. The way to think about it, folks, is we’re raising our fully top line guidance to 6% organic.

If you think of the last three years, 23% organic growth was flat, 24% was about close to 3%, and this year, 6%. As I said in the prepared remarks, we’re solidly on track to be a mid-single-digit growth company. EBIT margins should end the year in the mid 11% in 2023. They’re close to 9%, so we’ve steadily improved that. Higher gross margin efforts on SG&A and flow through onto EBIT margin.

That’s great to hear. Best of luck with the holiday season.

Thanks.

Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.: Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Boss of JP Morgan. Your line is open, Matthew.

Great, thanks. Michelle, could you elaborate on the momentum that you cited entering the season? Maybe what are you seeing in the denim category or from the consumer broadly? Harmit, have you seen any material change in demand trends in September or October globally, or is it just prudent planning for the remainder of the quarter that’s driving the moderation that’s embedded in your fourth quarter organic revenue guidance?

Harmit Singh, Chief Financial and Growth Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.: I’ll answer your second first because I’m sure it’s top of mind for folks. No, it’s just being, the prudent guidance is just being, you know, conservatism on the macros. We’re not seeing any underlying change in trends as I reflected. I think we’re really well set for holidays, and Michelle can give you a perspective on the category and the consumer.

Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.: Sure. So Matt, thanks for the question. First, let me talk about the category. We’re really excited. I mean, the denim category is accelerating both here in the U.S. and globally. As the definitive market leader, we are very well positioned to take advantage of that. Of course, as the leader, we help fuel the growth, and we’re seeing that happen. Just to remind everyone, we are the market share leader across men’s and women’s globally, and we continue to maintain our number one share position in the U.S. as well for both men and women. I’d say most recently, we’re really thrilled to see that we’re gaining share in youth, premium, and with our Signature by Levi Strauss & Co. business.

When we think about our business from a segmentation standpoint, doing really well with Red Tab, and for those consumers who are more value-oriented, we saw our Signature by Levi Strauss & Co. business up double digits this quarter. What’s driving that? For our business in terms of market share gains, and again, as the leader, helping to fuel the momentum on the category overall, it starts with product. We’re bringing a lot of newness and innovation into our business through fits, fabrics, silhouettes. A lot of that’s still happening with loops and baggy, but we’re really seeing strength across the board. Importantly, not only is it continuing to be the leader in denim bottoms, but we’re really expanding our addressable market as we think about going from denim bottoms to head-to-toe denim lifestyle. We’re seeing that momentum in categories like tops.

When you take a step back, historically, we’ve been around many decades. We really built this business on denim, but we’re building our future on denim lifestyle. I feel good about the category and our position. Now, more broadly to your question on the consumer, I think kind of building on Harmit Singh’s comments and mine, our consumer continues to be resilient, and we’re seeing that around the globe. It starts with the business, our fourth consecutive quarter of high single-digit organic growth globally. I think it’s important to make note that for the quarter, this business was driven largely through unit growth, right? It’s unit growth that’s really fueling that momentum. We saw broad-based strength across geographies, across categories, that’s both men’s and women’s, tops and bottoms, and both DTC and wholesale. Consumers are responding. Our strategies are working. I mentioned the denim category accelerating.

I mentioned really kind of being relevant across these various consumer cohorts. We get that we’re operating in a complex environment here in the U.S. We’re staying close to it. When you think about the Levi’s brand, in times of uncertainty, consumers turn to brands that they know and trust, and Levi’s is certainly one of those brands. We’re optimistic as we enter the fourth quarter. We expect the health and the momentum of our business to continue. We’ve been planning for holiday all year. I would say we have our most robust lifestyle assortment we’ve ever brought to the consumer. We’ve launched a seasonally relevant product across really all categories. We continue to make progress on this head-to-toe. You’ll see lots of the fashion bottoms as well as tops and outerwear, third pieces.

I think products that really go sort of from day to night at work to evening events, especially during that holiday season. There’s a lot of newness. That will also be fueled by tremendous marketing. We’ve had a great year of marketing with Beyoncé. We’ve got Shaboozey right now, and you can expect us to continue to connect in a relevant way during the holiday season.

That’s great color. Best of luck.

Thanks, Matt.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ike Boruchal of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead, Ike.

Hey, thanks for the add, Mike. Congratulations. Maybe Harmit, just to focus on margins specifically, can you comment on two things? One, within the SG&A cost line, you talked a little bit about it earlier, but the distribution line is running around 7% of sales right now. I know, can you remind us the moving pieces on the warehousing and DCs you have going on? A year ago, it was around 6%. I think historically, it’s been 5%. How quickly does that margin start to benefit you guys as you go into next year? To that point, are you comfortable beginning to lay out a timeline on the return to 15% margin you guys kind of put back on the table several quarters ago as the momentum picked up? Thank you.

Harmit Singh, Chief Financial and Growth Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.: Sure. Let me start with gross margin. I’ll give you some color about what happened in Q3 so people and yourself understand. I’ll go quickly into SG&A and distribution. Think of gross margin in quarter three, up 110 basis points, higher than what we had expected when we talked about this a quarter ago. Three basic factors. One is the structural mix, which is higher women’s DTC and international that we think continues for a long, long time. The second is we have taken moderate pricing, and we’re driving higher full price sale. The third is the FX benefit, which we are calling about 50 basis points. This is more than offset, about 80 basis points of headwind from the tariffs. That’s why, you know, A, we were ahead of last year, and the over-delivery was FX. It’s difficult to predict.

We haven’t predicted FX for quarter four as an example. Full price, you know, it’s something we’re focused on. It’s difficult to forecast that. Those are, that’s gross margin. Think about SG&A. Our SG&A, you know, for the quarter was below 50%. If you think the first half of the year was higher than 50% of revenue, higher than, you know, so the run rate was lower than the first half of the year, which was higher. The way we think of SG&A, I mean, there are two ways to look at it. A, our gross profit dollars are growing at a faster pace than SG&A dollars. If you think of year-to-date, our gross profit dollars are up $220 million, and SG&A is up $126 million. Clearly driving high flow through.

If you look at it just as a revenue to SG&A, SG&A up 6% and revenue up 8%, so clear leverage. As we think we end the year, you know, if 6% is the revenue guidance organically, SG&A is probably in the mid-single digits, so there’s clear leverage on that. This quarter, our, you know, SG&A is big up relative to a year ago. There’s performance comp, which was a big piece. We’re having a good year. Distribution costs, which I’ll come to in a minute, so I’ll answer your question. We open on a gross basis 14 new stores. That’s really, you know, the trifecta factor in DTC is driving the result. Marketing expenses moved a little bit between Q4 and Q3, especially as we launched the Shaboozey campaign and some foreign exchange headwind.

To your question, Ike, about distribution, overall, as you know, we’re remapping our distribution network to more of a hybrid network built for omnichannel from a manual network that is built for wholesale. There are clear benefits that we will see over time. In the short term, transformations obviously have a short-term impact. Over the short term, in the U.S., we’ll be running parallel DCs as we ramp up the new DC that’s run by a third party. If you think of distribution costs, about 7%, and they’ve increased from a year ago, I would say about half of that is a reclass in distribution expenses from selling to distribution for e-commerce. The other half is equally split between volume, which is driving more distribution expenses, and the cost of parallel running.

Our expectation is that the parallel running of DCs, because the good news is our demand is pretty robust. As we make this transformation, we have to do it in a way that we not only fulfill the demand for our customers and the consumers, but also ramp up and close this DC. Our view is, and it’s art and science. We’re working through that. I think by the end of quarter one, 2026, is when we probably ramp down the parallel running of the DC, so early 2026. When we report results for quarter four in early 2026, we’ll give you a perspective on distribution expenses. Over time, long term, we should reduce cost per unit and the cost of running parallel DC. Does that help, Ike, answer your question?

Yes, I’m just curious timeline on the 15%. If there’s anything you can share.

Yeah, I think, you know, you’re asking for a quick preview onto Investor Day or a preview on that. I think the way to think about that, Ike, is, you know, our EBIT margin should end the year about in the mid-11s, right? They’ve grown nicely over the last couple of years. I think the basic building blocks are the following. The gross margin expansion continues. I mean, our view is that the structural piece continues. If you take probably a five-year period, you could say that’s 200 basis points. That should help EBIT. The SG&A leverage, if you’re, you know, as we get to mid-single-digit growth company, I think the SG&A leverage is about 200 basis points. We may amp up advertising a little bit, you know, given the wonderful programs our Chief Marketing Officer and the deeds are invoking.

I think that helps drive the brand, makes the brand stronger, and importantly, drives revenue. I think that’s probably a 50-odd basis points of headwind, and that will come with revenue. I think that’s your building block. You think of gross margin expansion, SG&A leverage, and a little bit of reinvestment in advertising gets you to the 15%.

Got it. Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Kearney. Barclays, please go ahead, Paul.

Thanks for taking my question. Within the wholesale business growth, can you speak to how much was driven by maybe new points of distribution or expanded assortment versus like-for-like on stronger sell-throughs? How would you categorize inventory levels within the retail channel setting into holidays? Thank you.

Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.: Sure, Paul. Thanks. Thanks for the question. As we said in our earlier remarks, we’re quite pleased with the continued growth that we’re seeing in the channel. This is now four consecutive quarters with this quarter up 5%. We do expect the year to be slightly positive in the wholesale channel for the entire year, which was actually up from our prior expectation, which we had said previously flat to slightly up. We saw positive growth in this channel across all segments. We saw particular strength in U.S. wholesale. We saw it in Asia, Latin America, and in the Signature by Levi Strauss & Co. business, which is more for that value consumer. The growth is largely being driven with existing accounts as their consumers are responding to our fashion fits. Women’s, women’s especially is outperforming and lifestyle.

Yes, we are bringing in some new accounts like Western Wear, we’ve got new distribution in Cavender’s, we’re expanding in Boot Barn. The growth is largely coming from our execution with our existing partners.

Great. Thank you. Best of luck.

Thank you.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Oliver Chen of TD Securities. Please go ahead, Oliver.

Thanks. Hi, Michelle. Hi, Harmit. Regarding Americas, the low single-digit growth, is your expectation that that continues in Q4? On the wholesale side, it’s been a little more challenging channel, but do you think it’ll remain sustainably positive or will that be potentially volatile? There are a lot of great initiatives and partnerships, but part of the thesis is also like amplify to simplify with inventory management and SKU rationalization. How do we reconcile those two in terms of where you are in that journey?

Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.: Sure. Thanks, Oliver, for the question. As it relates to the Americas, or I can speak to the biggest part of the business, which is the U.S., we’re really proud about how the team has been executing in that market. This is our fifth consecutive quarter of growth, and I think as you all know, it’s our largest, most mature, most competitive market. Both channels, DTC was up 6%, wholesale up 2%, and we continue to see long-term growth opportunities in both those channels. I think about the DTC business here in the U.S. We have the potential to even double our store count and further accelerate e-commerce on the back of the momentum we have. On wholesale, which I was just talking about more broadly, global wholesale, wholesale in the U.S. remains strong.

Our key partners are responding, and their consumers are responding to our expanded product pipeline across men’s, especially women’s, where we continue to be under-indexed, in particular in the wholesale channel, and then that head-to-toe lifestyle. As we look forward, I’ll just say that as we look to Q4 in the U.S. and in the Americas, we expect the business to remain healthy against executing the same strategies we’ve been talking about, leaning into DTC, driving units per transaction, driving conversion, driving greater full price sell-through. As I was mentioning earlier, a lot of our growth is coming off of units. While we are seeing that enhanced AUR, we’re also driving a lot of volume growth. I will say, as it relates to U.S. wholesale, while we expect continued positive growth in DTC for the fourth quarter, we do expect in U.S.

wholesale to be down, given that we’re lapping a very strong quarter last year, and we had that 53rd week. As we lap last quarter, fourth quarter, strong results, the 53rd week, and just frankly to be continuing to be prudent as we think about this channel, given the complex macro environment we’re operating in in the U.S. Oliver, does that fully answer? You had part two of the question. Let me answer that, and then I’ll come back and make sure I’ve fully answered. Part two, I’m glad you asked the question about SKU rationalization because we continue to make really good progress there. While we talk about expanded assortment lifestyle, we are also at the same time reducing SKUs. We’ve decreased our SKUs by about 15% compared to last year. This has been an ongoing journey over the last 18 months or so.

We’re continuing to raise the bar there. What’s really enabling us to do that is through a tighter, globally common or globally directed assortment. Just for perspective, if we think about the season we’re in right now, the second half of 2025, 40% of our SKUs are globally common. That’s up from a couple of years ago where it was under 10%. That allows us to make sure, again, that we can get the breadth and the lifestyle where we’re getting significantly higher productivity per SKU. That metric, just for fun, is up 20% on SKU productivity. It really speaks to how the team is leaning in with a much stronger merchant mentality and operating like a retailer. That’s helping us drive those tailwinds that we’re seeing in the business overall and especially in DTC.

Yeah, thanks, Michelle. That’s really helpful. This is quick. I think, Harmit, are there any gross margin comparisons we should be aware of as we anniversary them this year and think about next year?

Harmit Singh, Chief Financial and Growth Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.: Last year was a 53rd week. This year, I think the only piece will be, you know, we probably see tariff impact in the second half of this year, next year in the first half. The way we think about gross margin, and I think you’re asking for a high-level framework for 2026. It’s a good question. Let me just talk about it because as we build up plans for next year, the tailwinds that we think probably help gross margin increase. One is we’re looking at pricing opportunities, again, targeted, not only in the U.S. but globally, given that 60% of the business is global, is outside the U.S. The structural improvements of DTC International Women’s continues. We continue to focus on foot price setting, and it’s not anywhere close to 100%. There’s clearly opportunity there.

The other piece is as we think about product cost, you know, Michelle talked about the simplification of SKUs. We’re looking at a shorter go-to-market calendar, and cotton commodity is at a better spot today than it was a year ago. We’ve broadly locked in product costing for the first half. We’re in the process. By the time we report and guide Q2 2026, we’ll probably have locked in the second half. Stay tuned. The headwind is largely tariffs. You’ve seen some impact in the second half of this year. We’ve offset the first, the quarter three. We’re working, you know, we’re trying to do what we can for quarter four, but I’ve guided you the appropriate numbers. Those are the tailwinds and the headwinds as you think about gross margin.

Conference Moderator: Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Dana Telsey of Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead, Dana.

Hi, good afternoon, everyone. As you think about the lifestyle offering, Michelle, with tops and with bottoms and jackets, outfits, what did you see in the growth rates of the different categories? Given the marketing that you’ve been doing in the collaborations, how do you think of the AUR opportunities going forward? Thank you.

Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.: Great. Thanks, Dana, for the question. We’re really pleased with the progress and the acceleration in our tops business overall. I like to say, while we’re pleased, we’re not satisfied. There’s a ton of upside because tops represent just currently 22% of our business. As we shared earlier, our tops grew 9% overall for the quarter, 10% year to date, and we’re really seeing the strength across channels and genders. If you double-click underneath that, men’s up 10%. We’re really seeing popularity in things like western tops, button downs, polos, wovens. As we think about our tops strategy and denim lifestyle, we do start closer to our core, really injecting life into the western shirt, which is being advertised in our campaign right now with Shaboozey. Wovens, things like our authentic button downs, that business for men’s up 20%. Similarly, women’s tops up 8%, seeing it across both channels.

Denim tops, I’ll start there, up 12%. Wovens, including things like blouses, fashion, button downs, up 37%. The category we’re really expanding in to expand her closet, dresses and jumpsuits up nearly 20%. Importantly, as we drive all this newness and excitement in head-to-toe dressing, we’re seeing both growth in newness and in our core, which is really important to continue to support both. Back to the opportunity, if you think about our business today, while we’re making progress, there’s so much upside. Our ratio of bottoms to tops is three to one. That’s up significantly from years ago where it was seven to one or five to one. Our goal is to get to one to one. I’m very confident we will.

As we drive tops, it’s a UPT driver, it can be a traffic driver, and it really kind of completes this mission we’re on to have Levi stand for head-to-toe denim lifestyle. Hopefully that addresses your question, Dana.

Yes, thank you.

Great, thanks.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Aditya Karkhani of UBS. Your line is open, Aditya.

Hi, I think this is Chase Hall, and hopefully you can hear me. My question is that it sounds like you took some pricing in Q3. Harmit, I think you said one of the gross margin drivers in Q3 was pricing. Was that in response to tariff? In Q4, sorry, before that, the consumer, it sounds like, responded well to those price increases. Did you see any resistance? In Q4, do you plan on accelerating the price increases? Therefore, do you expect the consumer to react differently if you increase prices in the fourth quarter? Thank you.

Harmit Singh, Chief Financial and Growth Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.: Jay, we did. We took, you know, a little bit of pricing in Q3. It was not on MSRP because, you know, the goods are already being ticketed. This was in the selling to our customers in the U.S. I’m talking about. You know, we do it thoughtfully. We have really great momentum, as we mentioned, driven by demand. To answer your question, no impact on demand. We’ve not seen any impact on demand either from the customer or the consumer. The other piece that’s really working for us is our new products. As we think longer-term, pricing through innovation is one lever. We are also taking a hard look at our promotions, you know, and minimizing this as we focus on higher full-price selling will also, you know, be something that probably continues into 2026.

The way that we’re thinking about pricing, it’s more important to think about what’s the price-value equation for our products relative, you know, to the marketplace. That’s an important consideration to say. The other piece that’s important, Jay, is the segmentation of our product. If you think of the value consumer in the U.S., we offer a Signature by Levi Strauss & Co. product. It’s a great price point. It’s offered through Walmart. It had a great cost. It was up double digits. We’ve just also introduced Blue Tab, which is a premium product. It’s a premium position. It’s one and a half times to two times the price of the Red Tab product and offers rare value, even when you benchmark that. It’s a limited offer. We hope to scale it to doing really well. That’s how one is thinking through it.

There’s a little bit of pricing in other parts of the world, but it’s not, you know, something that we’ve done globally. When we talk about 2026 and guide 2026, we’ll give you a perspective on the pricing actions we have taken or our teams have taken around the world.

Got it. Harmit, thank you so much.

Thanks, Jay.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Lejuez of Citi. Please go ahead, Paul.

Thank you. This is Tracy Cogan filling in for Paul. I just had a follow-up on the last question. I think you said, from what I understood, that you only raised prices on selling to your partners. Have you actually had time to see the consumer response to these higher prices, or were you only saying that your partners haven’t had any hesitancy to buy at these higher prices? I was hoping you could comment on the U.S. wholesale business, how sell-ins are comparing to sell-outs. Thank you.

Harmit Singh, Chief Financial and Growth Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.: Generally, Tracy, good question. I think it’s a combination of both, you know, because the pricing initiatives have been now there through the quarter. The customers are not, we’re not seeing any demand contraction, you know, given the marginal pricing that has been taken or a consumer reaction. The consumer is generally resilient, you know, so far. That’s how we’re approaching the pricing. Plus, the full price selling has been there for a while. Given that the product is very relevant and hitting the mark, we’re not seeing any consumer pullback. I think that was your first question. What was your second one, Tracy, again?

I was hoping you could just comment more broadly on how the sell-ins to your wholesale partners are comparing to the sell-outs. Are they being more cautious than maybe the end consumer might indicate or something like that?

The sell-throughs have been fairly consistent with the sell-ins. That is why we are optimistic about ending the year strongly and then maintaining the momentum as we begin 2026.

Gotcha. Thanks very much.

Thank you, Tracy.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. At this time, I’d like to turn the floor back over to Michelle Gass for any closing remarks. Madam?

Michelle Gass, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.: Yes. Thank you, everyone, for joining the call, and we will look forward to talking to you at the end of Q4.

Conference Moderator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. Please disconnect your lines at this time.

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