Driven by robust organic sales and gross margin expansion, Church & Dwight Co. Inc. CHD reported third-quarter 2015 earnings per share of 90 cents, which increased 5.9% year over year and also surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a cent.
The top line climbed 2.4% to $861.8 million and surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $856 million. Sales benefited from new product launches in all categories. Organic sales grew 3.2%, driven by 2.2% growth in volumes and a positive impact of 1% due to encouraging product mix and pricing.
Gross profit inched up 5% year over year to $385.8 million. Gross margin increased 110 basis points (bps) to 44.8%, driven by a controlled pricing environment in the laundry category, lower commodities, productivity programs as well as the effect of higher margin businesses.
Selling, general, and administrative expense (SG&A) increased 9.3% to $102.4 million during the quarter due to incremental amortization from acquisitions, rise in incentive compensation, and research and development expenditure.
On the other hand, operating income increased 7.6% year over year to $190.6 million in the quarter, with operating margin expanding approximately 100 bps to 22.1%.
Segment Details
Net sales for Consumer Domestic improved 4.7% year over year to $656.4 million. Organic sales also edged up 3.2% in the quarter due to increases in sales of ARM & HAMMER CLUMP & SEAL cat litter.
Sales at the Consumer International segment declined 8.4% to $124.7 million, negatively impacted by foreign exchange rates. Organic sales escalated 7.9%, mainly on the back of healthy sales in Europe, Canada, Mexico and Australia. Volumes jumped 6.9% while favorable product mix and pricing contributed 1% to sales.
Specialty Products witnessed a 2.9% jump in sales to $80.7 million driven by the company’s recent acquisition of the Vi-COR business. However, the segment witnessed organic sales decline of 2.2% as well as volume decline of 1.4%.
Other Financial Details
Church & Dwight, which shares space with The Procter & Gamble Company PG and Colgate-Palmolive Co. CL, ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of $210.6 million, long-term debt of $706 million and shareholders’ equity of $2,049.6 million.
Moreover, the company generated cash from operations of $408.8 million and incurred nearly $44.7 million in capital expenditures in the first nine months of 2015.
Outlook
Church & Dwight remains optimistic about its future performance on the back of a stable portfolio of value and premium products, the launch of innovative new products, aggressive productivity programs and tight management of overhead expenses.
Church & Dwight expects adjusted earnings in 2015 to grow by roughly 7–8%, gaining from the ongoing growth momentum, product innovations and increase in gross margin. The company expects reported earnings per share to grow in the range of 1% to 2%.
Also, the company expects organic sales growth of 3% in 2015, along with gross margin expansion of 25 bps year over year. Meanwhile, operating margin is expected to improve 65 bps to 75 bps.
For the fourth quarter of 2015, the company expects organic sales of 1%, while gross margin is expected to grow from the prior-year quarter. Earnings per share are envisioned to be in the range of $0.79–$0.81.
At present, Church & Dwight has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in the retail sector is Columbia Sportswear Company COLM, which holds a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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