P&G Outlook Weakens on Asset Sale to Coty

For the full year P&G posted adjusted diluted EPS of $4.02 on revenues of $76.28 billion compared with 2014 EPS of $4.09 and revenues of $80.51 billion. Consensus estimates called for EPS of $3.96 on sales of $76.44 billion.

On a currency neutral basis P&G’s adjusted EPS for the year was $4.55 and totaled $1.13 for the quarter. Exchange rate fluctuations reduced quarterly EPS by 22% year-over-year and by 11% over the full year.

P&G’s guidance for its 2016 fiscal year include a restatement of 2015 adjusted (core) results to account for the announced sale earlier this month of several of the company’s cosmetic brands to Coty for $12.5 billion. P&G said adjusted 2015 EPS will be restated to approximately $3.77. Guidance for 2016 will be relative to the restated figures and there will be no change to the GAAP results

That being said, P&G said it is projecting organic sales to be in-line to up low-single digits versus fiscal 2015. Foreign exchange is expected to be a four to five percentage point headwind on all-in sales growth. As a result, P&G expects all-in sales to be down low-to-mid single digits versus fiscal 2015 results. The company also said it expects core earnings per share to be slightly below to up mid-single digits versus fiscal 2015 restated core EPS of $3.77. Including the impacts of non-core restructuring costs and discontinued operations, P&G said it expects all-in GAAP EPS to be up 53% to 63% versus fiscal year 2015 all-in GAAP EPS of $2.44.

Consensus estimates call for first fiscal quarter 2016 EPS of $1.04 on revenues of $19.12 billion. For the full year the estimate for EPS is $4.18 and revenues are pegged at $$75.93 billion. It is likely that full-year estimates will be adjusted.

The company’s CEO said:

In fiscal 2015, P&G delivered strong, double-digit constant currency core EPS growth and very good free cash flow productivity of over 100% on modest organic sales growth. We made significant productivity gains and have largely executed the reshaping of our business portfolio. Going forward, our objective is to deliver balanced results across the three main drivers of operating total shareholder return – sales growth, operating profit margin expansion and free cash flow generation.

P&G’s shares traded down about 0.2% in Thursday’s pre-market session at $80.43 in a 52-week range of $77.10 to $93.89. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $88.00 before today’s report.

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