Herbalife Holdings (NYSE: HLF) detailed its leadership transition and capital-allocation strategy at the Barclays 19th Annual Global Consumer Conference on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. Shares closed at $12.38, up 1.73% on Sept. 8.
The company said it would name CFO John DeSimone interim CEO following the departure of Stephan McArthur, who will return to operate his distributorship at the end of October 2024 after three years as chief executive.
"We are doing this in a position of financial strength. This is not a traditional CEO transition," DeSimone told the audience. "We are not even losing Stephan. He is our number-two distributor. In his organization, he has about half a billion dollars in revenue." DeSimone, who previously served as CFO from 2010 to mid-2018, returned from semi-retirement in early 2024 and will oversee the transition indefinitely.
Scott Schaefer, formerly CFO and CEO at Zappos, is set to become chief financial officer on Jan. 1, 2025. Schaefer joined Herbalife about ten months ago. "Zappos was a company that was purpose first, values first," Schaefer said. "When you're creating value for people, profit follows and cash follows."
DeSimone reported four consecutive quarters of reported net sales growth and noted that nine of the last eleven quarters showed local-currency sales gains, including volume growth over the past four quarters. Free cash flow yield came in at 23% over the trailing four quarters.
Herbalife announced a new $250 million, three-year share repurchase program beginning in the fourth quarter, following its earnings release in early November. Total stock buybacks since DeSimone's initial tenure began total $6.5 billion. Gross leverage has fallen to 2.7x-2.8x from 3.9x three years ago, with more than $800 million in debt retired. Debt maturities do not come due until the early 2030s.
A prior objective to pay down another $600 million by end of 2028 may extend into 2029 because of the buyback commitment, DeSimone said.
EBITDA margins, historically between 15% and 16%, fell to 11.3% in 2023 coming out of COVID and have recovered to just over 13% in the most recent year. Capital expenditure remains in the range of 1% to 2% of sales.
In India, a September 2023 cut in the goods-and-services tax on Herbalife's category from 18% to 5% produced a 13% consumer price reduction and more than 40% volume growth. India had posted eighteen consecutive years of growth before the tax change.
On product innovation, Herbalife highlighted Pro2col, a beta-stage personalization application; Bionic, a vitamin line with 40 unique formulas; Link BioSciences, supporting one-to-one customized formulations; and Life I/O. DeSimone also noted that Herbalife One, an internal platform, concluded roughly a year ago, while Oracle ERP cloud migration is planned through 2028 or 2029.
Herbalife now counts approximately 2 million distributors across 95 countries and 6 million direct-buying members, including 4 million U.S. customers who are not distributors. Nutritional clubs — fixed-location retail sites in North America — serve daily single-serve items including teas and protein shakes alongside body-transformation programs.
