Procter & Gamble posted a 13.6% rise in quarterly profit, driven by developing markets, and raised the low end of its full-year profit forecast due to the growth in the quarter.
Profit rose to $2.51 billion, or 74 cents a share, in the fiscal third quarter ended in March, from $2.21 billion, or 63 cents a share, a year earlier.
The maker of Gillette razors and Pampers diapers said in March that it expected to earn 72 cents to 74 cents a share. Analysts, on average, expected 74 cents a share, according to
Thomson Financial.
Sales rose 8.4% to $18.69 billion, exceeding analysts' average forecast of $18.59 billion. P&G had forecast a 7% to 9% rise.
Organic sales, which exclude mergers and the impact of foreign exchange, rose 6%, in line with the company's forecast of 5% to 7% growth.
Unit volume rose 6%, driven by products such as the Tide, Ariel and Downy fabric care brands, as well as Head & Shoulders shampoo and the Olay skin care line.
“The developing markets, as a group, are doing double digit (growth) and that’s clearly one of the things helping us to get to the upper ranges,” P&G CFO Clayton Daley told CNBC's “Squawk Box” on Tuesday.