CINCINNATI (AP) — Procter & Gamble Co.'s fiscal first-quarter results beat Wall Street's expectations as it controlled expenses and saw solid sales growth in its health care segment.
Shares of the maker of Tide detergent and Charmin toilet paper gained more than 4 percent in afternoon trading Tuesday.
P&G has been working on transforming its business to better focus on bigger brands with growth potential. The company has already shed some of the smaller brands it says collectively contribute little to its operating profit.
Chairman, President and CEO David Taylor said in a written statement Tuesday that the company is "now focusing all our efforts on 10 large, structurally attractive categories where P&G holds leading positions."
P&G, the world's largest consumer products maker, earned $2.71 billion, or 96 cents per share, for the period ended Sept. 30. A year ago the Cincinnati-based company earned $2.6 billion, or 91 cents per share.
Earnings, adjusted to account for discontinued operations and restructuring costs, were $1.03 per share. That topped the 98 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected.
Revenue was basically flat at $16.52 billion. Analysts polled by Zacks expected revenue of $16.45 billion.
Sales for the health care unit climbed 4 percent, while sales for the fabric and home care division edged up 1 percent.
For fiscal 2017, P&G still expects adjusted earnings per share growth of mid-single digits compared with fiscal 2016's earnings of $3.67 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet predict earnings of $3.88 per share.
Its shares rose $3.48, or 4.1 percent, to $87.58 in afternoon trading Tuesday. Its shares are up 13 percent over the past year.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on PG at http://www.zacks.com/ap/PG
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