Cosmetics maker Coty Inc posted first-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, hit by sluggish sales in its biggest business, consumer beauty.

Net income attributable to the company was $52.3 million, or 7 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sep. 30, compared with a loss of $12.1 million, or 2 cents per share, a year earlier.

Net revenue fell 4.4% to $1.94 billion. Analysts were expecting $1.97 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

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Coty CEO Pierre Laubies commented:  "Q1 marked the first quarter of implementing our turnaround plan. With Younique excluded from our results as of September, we have also begun to see some improvements in the Consumer Beauty division. These improvements include revenue growth and market share gains on select brands in Europe, strong performance in Sally Hansen U.S., and some early progress on Covergirl. Throughout the organization, our teams are building a better business, including making trade-offs in favor of healthy, sustainable sales. Our strong Q1 gross margin improvement is a reflection of our progress in this area. With the consistent delivery of our Luxury division in a more volatile environment, and the strong performance of the Professional Beauty division, our Q1 is well on the path of our turnaround deployment."

Coty CFO Pierre-André Terisse said:  "The beginning of the year was in-line with our expectations on all key financial metrics, including net revenues, adjusted operating income, adjusted EPS, and free cash flow. More importantly, our equation is healthier as the significant gross margin improvement allowed us to reinvest behind our brands. This gives me confidence in our ability to deliver our targets for the year. As we continue to explore how to accelerate the transformation of Coty, with a strategic review which has already attracted strong interest, we will in the coming quarters continue to focus on the fundamentals of our turnaround: deploying operational excellence, improving the performance of our supply chain, expanding gross margin to support our brands, streamlining the organization and maintaining discipline on cash and costs."