The logo for Procter & Gamble Co. is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on June 27, 2018.Brendan McDermid/Reuters
Procter & Gamble Co. raised its sales forecast for the year on Wednesday after quarterly results topped Wall Street expectations, boosted by price hikes and strong demand for premium fabric- and skin-care products.
Premium products such as Gain, Downy fabric-enhancer beads and SK-II skin-care products boosted growth during the quarter, and helped P&G, the No. 1 personal-care goods company, set itself apart from in-house supermarket brands that have been encroaching on market share.
Consumer goods companies have faced a string of challenges in the past year, including soaring commodities costs, a shortage of truck drivers, competition from supermarket brands and direct-to-consumer startups.
To counter this, P&G is cutting costs and revamping its brands and marketing strategy. The company, which makes Gillette razors and Tide detergents, has also raised prices and launched higher-end products in its beauty and fabric-care businesses.
The company’s shares rose after it posted better-than-expected second-quarter results.
“Yet another strong quarter for P&G as execution is clearly improving, proving last quarter wasn’t a fluke,” Wells Fargo analyst Bonnie Herzog said.
P&G said it now expects full-year organic sales growth of between 2 per cent and 4 per cent compared with previous guidance in the range of 2 per cent to 3 per cent. Organic sales excludes items such as acquisitions and the impact of foreign currency fluctuations.
Chief financial officer Jon Moeller said on a call to discuss earnings that steady results and confidence in global growth prompted the better forecast, but cautioned that it also reflected economic challenges such as trade, Brexit and the U.S. government shutdown.
“We’ve seen nothing in purchase data, to date, and consumer behaviour, to date, that would indicate that we’re currently moving toward a recession,” Mr. Moeller said.
The International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecasts on Monday and said the risk of a sharper decline in global growth had increased.
Quarterly organic sales rose 4 per cent. Analysts on average were expecting growth of 2.4 per cent, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Organic sales in P&G’s beauty business rose 8 per cent, driven by strong demand for its premium SK-II and Olay skin care brands, while feminine care business, which includes brands such as Tampax and Whisper, also witnessed high single-digit growth.
The fabric- and home-care business, which includes brands such as Tide and Ariel, rose 2 per cent to US$5.56-billion. The business is P&G’s biggest contributor to sales.
Excluding items, the company earned US$1.25 a share in the second quarter ended Dec. 31, beating analysts’ estimate of US$1.21 a share. Net sales rose marginally to US$17.44-billion, beating analysts’ average estimate of US$17.15-billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
In contrast, industry peer Kimberly-Clark Corp. said on Wednesday that it expects the environment in 2019 to remain challenging, while its quarterly profit missed expectations.