Procter & Gamble tops estimates with Q4 performance | Progresiv
Procter & Gamble has reported better-than-expected revenue growth for its fiscal fourth quarter, helped by price hikes and demand for its beauty products. 
For the quarter, net sales were up 3.6% to 17.1 billion dollars, while they grew by 7% on an organic basis, its strongest such increase in at least two years. The group said that price hikes helped boost organic sales by 3 percentage points.
The results meant that full-year sales were up 1% to 67.6 billion dollars, with organic sales up 5%.
However, the company reported a net loss of 5.24 billion dollars in the quarter due to an 8 billion dollars writedown of its struggling Gillette brand. The one-time, non-cash charge was to adjust the carrying values of Gillette’s goodwill and intangible assets.
CEO David Taylor said: “We met or exceeded each of our going-in core targets for sales, profit and cash in fiscal 2019. We built sales, market share and profit margin momentum throughout the year, ending with our strongest quarter of organic sales growth in well over a decade.”
Looking ahead, Taylor said the group will “continue to focus on superiority, productivity, constructive disruption and improving P&G’s organisation and culture to deliver sustainable, balanced top-line and bottom-line growth along with strong cash generation in a challenging competitive and macroeconomic environment”.
