Colgate-Palmolive Offers Tepid Outlook Amid Mixed Q1 Earnings

Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE: CL) early Friday posted mixed first quarter earnings results and offered a tepid outlook due to what it called a “slow start” to the year.

Written by StockNews.com

The New York City-based consumer products giant reported Q1:

earnings per share (EPS) of $0.67, which was $0.01 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $0.66,

revenues were flat from the year-ago period at $3.76 billion, falling just short of analysts’ view for $3.79 billion,

gross profit margin was 60.3%, a 50 basis point improvement over the 59.8% it saw in the first quarter 2016 and

gross margins rose 70 basis points to 60.7%, excluding one-time items.

Ian Cook, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the first quarter results:

“Clearly the first quarter was challenging and did not meet our organic sales growth expectations, driven mainly by softer results in North America.

Net sales were even with the year ago quarter,
while organic sales grew 0.5%, led by emerging markets where organic sales grew 3.0%…

As we look ahead, uncertainty in global markets and slowing category growth worldwide remain challenging.

While based on current spot rates, we continue to expect:

a low-single-digit net sales increase for 2017, based on our slow start to the year…[and]
organic sales growth for 2017 to be modestly below our 4% – 7% range with sequential improvement throughout the year.”

…Year-to-date, CL has gained 13.27%, versus a 7.21% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

CL currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #4 of 16 stocks in the Consumer Goods category.