Procter & Gamble beat analysts’ forecast with its fiscal third-quarter earnings Thursday, but trimmed full-year expectations.
Mark Lennihan
Boxes of Procter & Gamble's Tide with Bleach.
The world's largest consumer products maker posted earnings of 84 cents a share for the first three months of the year, which was ahead of expectations from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters of 80 cents a share.
The earnings were in-line with the Cincinnati-based company’s own projections of between 78 cents to 86 cents per share. In the comparable quarter last year P&G earned 82 cents a share.
Revenue for the quarter came in at $18.4 billion, which was below analysts’ predictions of $18.9 billion.
Net sales were 8 percent below the year-ago quarter at $18.4 billion, which the company said was due to a 9 percent unfavorable foreign exchange impact.
P&G said it sees full-year earnings of $4.21 per share on revenue of $80.51 billion, which is at the lower end of its previous guidance range, between $4.20 and $4.35 per share. The forecast is in line with analysts’ predictions. (See the company's CFO discuss the earnings here).
Earlier in the month, the company announced a hike to quarterly dividend of 10 percent, or 4 cents, to 44 cents per share.
Shares of Procter & Gamble were more than 2 percent higher in pre-market trading.