Procter & Gamble (PG) lifted prices across a range of its brands over the first few months of this year, helping it post better-than-expected third quarter earnings and an improved 2023 sales outlook.
Procter & Gamble said core earnings for the three months ending in March, the group's fiscal third quarter, were pegged at $1.37 per share, a 3% increase from the same period last year 5 cents ahead of the Street consensus forecast.
Group net sales, Procter & Gamble said, rose 3.7% to $20.1 billion, topping analysts' estimates of a $19.3 billion tally. Organic sales were up 7%. Price increases of around 10%, however, helped offset a 3% decline in overall sales volumes, with gross profit margins rising by 150 basis points to 48.2%.
Looking into the group's 2023 fiscal year, P&G reiterated its forecast for core earnings growth of between flat and 4%, compared to the $5.81 tally from last year, and bumped its organic sales growth estimate by one percentage point to around 6%.
“We delivered strong results in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023 in what continues to be a very difficult cost and operating environment,” said CEO Jon Moeller. “Our team’s strong execution of our strategies and our progress through three quarters enable us to raise our fiscal year outlook for sales growth and cash return to shareowners and maintain our guidance range for EPS growth despite continued cost and foreign exchange headwinds."
"We remain committed to our integrated strategies of a focused product portfolio of daily use categories where performance drives brand choice, superiority, productivity, constructive disruption and an agile and accountable organization structure," he added. "These strategies have enabled us to build and sustain strong momentum, and we’re confident they remain the right strategies to deliver balanced growth and value creation going forward.”
Procter & Gamble shares were marked 4.3% higher in early Friday trading following the earnings release to change hands at $157.11 each, a move that would nudge the stock into positive territory for the year.
Fabric and home care sales, which include cleaning products such as Tide laundry detergent, Joy, Febreze and Cascade, rose 9% from last year on an organic basis -- which strips out currency market impacts -- while baby, feminine and family care segment sales were 6% higher from 2022 levels.
Beauty sales rose 7% from last year, the company said, while personal grooming sales, which includes skin care products, were also up 7%.
