Food flavoring company McCormick (NYSE: MKC) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q2 CY2025, but sales were flat year on year at $1.66 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.69 per share was 5.7% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
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McCormick (MKC) Q2 CY2025 Highlights:
- Revenue: $1.66 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.66 billion (flat year on year, in line)
- Adjusted EPS: $0.69 vs analyst estimates of $0.65 (5.7% beat)
- Adjusted EBITDA: $386.3 million vs analyst estimates of $301.5 million (23.3% margin, 28.1% beat)
- Management reiterated its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance of $3.05 at the midpoint
- Operating Margin: 14.8%, in line with the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 4.6%, down from 5.8% in the same quarter last year
- Sales Volumes rose 1.3% year on year, in line with the same quarter last year
- Market Capitalization: $19.75 billion
Brendan M. Foley, Chairman, President, and CEO, stated, "We are pleased with our strong results for the first half of the year, as we are managing in a dynamic environment. Our continued volume-driven performance and share gains across core categories reflect the success of our prioritized investments in the areas that are driving the greatest value and will sustain our momentum for the remainder of 2025 and beyond."
Company Overview
The classic red Heinz ketchup bottle’s competitor, McCormick (NYSE: MKC) sells food-flavoring products like condiments, spices, and seasoning mixes.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can experience short-term success, but top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years.
With $6.74 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, McCormick is one of the larger consumer staples companies and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because there are only so many big store chains to sell into, making it harder to find incremental growth. To accelerate sales, McCormick likely needs to optimize its pricing or lean into new products and international expansion.
As you can see below, McCormick’s 2.1% annualized revenue growth over the last three years was sluggish, but to its credit, consumers bought more of its products.
This quarter, McCormick’s $1.66 billion of revenue was flat year on year and in line with Wall Street’s estimates.
Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 2.5% over the next 12 months, similar to its three-year rate. This projection is underwhelming and implies its newer products will not catalyze better top-line performance yet.
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Volume Growth
Revenue growth can be broken down into changes in price and volume (the number of units sold). While both are important, volume is the lifeblood of a successful staples business as there’s a ceiling to what consumers will pay for everyday goods; they can always trade down to non-branded products if the branded versions are too expensive.
McCormick’s average quarterly volume growth was a healthy 1.1% over the last two years. This is pleasing because it shows consumers are purchasing more of its products. 
In McCormick’s Q2 2025, sales volumes jumped 1.3% year on year. This result was an acceleration from its historical levels, certainly a positive signal.
Key Takeaways from McCormick’s Q2 Results
We were impressed by how significantly McCormick blew past analysts’ EPS and EBITDA expectations this quarter. Overall, this print had some key positives. The stock traded up 3.9% to $76.51 immediately after reporting.
McCormick had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.
