The office-furniture maker missed on revenue and beat sharply on profit, in a pattern this reporting week is turning into something of a theme.
MillerKnoll reported first-quarter fiscal 2027 net sales of $923.4 million, down 3.4% from a year earlier and short of the roughly $943 million analysts had expected. Profitability told a different story: adjusted earnings per share came in at 53 cents, well above the 35-cent consensus estimate, while reported diluted earnings per share rose to 38 cents from 29 cents a year earlier.
Adjusted gross margin expanded 330 basis points to 41.8%, helped by a $16.5 million tariff-refund benefit, roughly 180 basis points on its own, alongside broader cost discipline. Adjusted operating margin improved to 7.1% from 6.3%. Orders, a forward-looking measure of demand, rose 3.2% to $913.9 million, up 3.5% on an organic basis, suggesting the sales decline reflects timing rather than a demand collapse.
For the current quarter, MillerKnoll guided to revenue of $972 million to $1.012 billion and adjusted earnings per share of 43 to 49 cents. It trimmed its full-year revenue range slightly to $3.88 billion to $4.03 billion while holding its adjusted earnings guidance steady at $1.85 to $2.15 per share. Shares rose nearly 4% following the report.
MillerKnoll's tariff-refund tailwind arrived in the same week AutoZone cited a similar boost to its own gross margin, a coincidence worth flagging rather than ignoring: two companies in unrelated industries both leaned on trade-related refunds to offset weaker top-line growth in the same reporting week, a pattern worth watching as more retailers and manufacturers report in the weeks ahead.