Procter gains on lower costs

Article Excerpt

PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $169 is a buy. The consumer products giant (New York symbol PG; Income-Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.35 billion; Market cap: $397.2 billion; Dividend yield: 2.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.pg.com) raised your quarterly dividend by 7.0% with the May 2024 payment. Investors now receive $1.0065 a share instead of $0.9407. The annual rate of $4.03 yields 2.4%. Procter has paid shareholder dividends for 134 years and has increased its payout annually for the past 68 years. In its fiscal 2024 fourth quarter, ended June 30, 2024, Procter’s sales fell 0.1%, to $20.53 billion from $20.55 billion a year earlier. Stronger volume sales of grooming, health care, fabric and home-care products offset declines of beauty and baby, feminine, and family-care products. Due to better productivity and lower costs for ingredients, the company’s earnings before unusual items rose 2.2% in the quarter, to $1.40 a share (or a total of $3.46 billion) from $1.37 a share (or $3.38 billion). Procter & Gamble…