Q1 Sees Gains for P&G

For the January – March quarter, net sales at the Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) rose 2% to $20.6 billion. In the US market, P&G held or grew value share in businesses representing two-thirds of sales.
 
“We delivered another quarter of steady progress,” said Bob McDonald, chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Top-line growth was in line with our expectations. Market shares improved broadly. Strong cost savings enabled us to exceed our outlook on the bottom line. We increased our dividend earlier this month, and we are now projecting to repurchase $6 billion in stock, which is at the high end of our estimated range. We expect further top-line improvement in the fourth quarter, driven by innovation and portfolio expansion, enabled by continued productivity improvement.”
 
Earlier this month, P&G announced it increased the quarterly dividend by seven percent. The company raised its share repurchase target to approximately $6 billion of stock for the fiscal year, the high end of its stated target range of $5 billion to $6 billion.
 
P&G is maintaining its organic sales growth guidance of 3-4% for the fiscal year. It is estimating organic sales growth in the range of 3-4% for the April–June quarter.