Procter & Gamble Profit Beats; Lowers Guidance

Procter & Gamble quarterly profit plunged 49 percent, as the world's largest household products maker wrote down the value of its appliance and salon professional products businesses, and it said this year's profit would come in lower than previously expected due to the strong dollar.

Source: pg.com Bounty

Procter & Gamble's core profit per share was $1.10 compared with expectations of $1.08 by analysts surveyed by Reuters. Revenue was $22.1 billion compared with estimates of $22.2 billion.

“The quarter that we just completed was pretty much in line,” Jon Moeller, Procter & Gamble CEO, told CNBC in an interview. “In that quarter there were significant increases in commodities costs.”

The company said net sales were forecast to increase by three to four percent in fiscal 2012 and expects its core earnings per share at between $4 and $4.10 for the end of the year.

“Those numbers are slightly lower than our previous guidance, reflecting primarily foreign currencies,” Moeller said. “Particularly emerging market currencies, whether it's the Turkish lira or the Brazilian real, were weaker than we expected.”

Organic sales, which strip out the impact of acquisitions, asset sales and currency fluctuations, rose in each business unit and were up 4 percent overall.

The volume of goods sold rose 1 percent, with strong growth in developing markets overtaking a decline in volume in developed regions.

Procter & Gamble shares were lower in pre-market trading.

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