Topic: How To Invest

Q: Hello Pat: I have owned Procter & Gamble for several years based on your recommendation. I recently received a white proxy form from Trian Partners, which is proposing to elect a board member to “revitalize” P&G. Do you have any recommendation of whether I should sign the proxy form over to them?

Article Excerpt

A: Procter & Gamble Co., $92.60, symbol PG on New York (Shares outstanding: 2.6 billion; Market cap: $240.8 billion; www.pg.com), is a recommendation of our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. The company is one of the world’s largest makers of household and personal-care goods. Major brands include Tide (laundry detergent), Pampers (diapers), Gillette (razors) and Crest (toothpaste). Activist investor Nelson Peltz—his firm Trian Partners owns over 1% of Procter—continues to pressure the company to improve shareholder value. Specifically, he wants it to set up its less-profitable businesses as separate companies and further cut its costs. Peltz also wants to place himself on Procter’s board of directors. It’s the largest U.S. company to ever be the target of such a campaign. In the end, it will be big mutual funds, ETFs, pension funds and so on who decide the vote at P&G’s annual general meeting on October 10, 2017. But if you want to vote your shares, you could vote in favour of the Trian…