Was This an Earnings Gamble at Procter?

Earnings were $0.92 per share (EPS) on $18.1 billion in revenues. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.92 EPS and $18.49 billion in revenues. This represents a gain of 10% on organic earnings, but organic sales were up just 1% — the net sales number of -8% was impacted 8% by effects of currency headwinds. Operating cash flow was $3.6 billion for the third quarter.

As for guidance, P&G maintained its outlook for currency-neutral core earnings per share growth in the double-digits. The company also maintained guidance for core EPS to be in-line to down low single digits, versus prior year core EPS of $4.09, consistent with analysts’ current consensus estimate.

As a reminder, P&G just hiked its dividend — somewhat of a disappointment to some investors. Several details about this past quarter were as follows:

• Beauty, Hair, and Personal Care segment organic sales decreased 3%.
• Grooming segment organic sales increased 9%.
• Health Care segment organic sales increased 6%.
• Fabric Care and Home Care segment organic sales were unchanged from a year ago.
• Baby, Feminine and Family Care segment organic sales increased 2%.
• Reported gross margin decreased 30 basis points, including 50 basis points of non-core restructuring charges.
• Core gross margin improved 20 basis points, including 70 basis points of foreign exchange impacts.
• On a currency-neutral basis, core gross margin increased 90 basis points, driven by 250 basis points of productivity cost savings and a 90 basis point benefit from pricing.
• Selling, general and administrative expense (SG&A) decreased 80 basis points on a reported basis versus the prior year.

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24/7 Wall St. has also included management’s quote to highlight the overall tone. Chairman, President and CEO A.G. Lafley said:

Our third quarter earnings results were largely in-line with what we had expected. We delivered double-digit constant currency core EPS growth with significant currency-neutral gross and operating margin expansion from over 400 basis points of productivity savings from programs that continue to gain momentum. This quarter the productivity progress was offset by foreign exchange. As we have done before, we’ll offset foreign exchange over time through a combination of pricing, mix enhancement and cost reduction. We are focused on the significant opportunities in our control, including brand initiatives and product innovation, business and brand portfolio simplification, overhead savings and major supply chain productivity initiatives, to improve results in 2015 and beyond.

P&G closed up one cent at $83.09 on Wednesday, against a 52-week range of $77.29 to $93.89. Its market cap is $224 billion, and analysts had a pre-earnings consensus price target of $92.00. Shares were indicated down 0.5% at $82.70 in Thursday’s early bird trading indications, although the real direction may not be known until after the open, or at least until the Q&A hits in the conference call.

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