P&G Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) will unveil its latest earnings tomorrow morning, Friday, August 3, 2012. Procter & Gamble sells and markets consumer products such as pharmaceuticals, cleaning supplies, personal care, and pet supplies in more than 180 countries.

Procter & Gamble Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for net income of 77 cents per share, a decline of 8.3% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from 84 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at 77 cents during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 3.3% versus last year to $3.80.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company beat estimates by one cent, coming in at profit of 94 cents per share against an estimate of net income of. The company also topped expectations in the second quarter.

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A Look Back: In the third quarter, profit fell 16.1% to $2.41 billion (82 cents a share) from $2.87 billion (96 cents a share) the year earlier, but exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue fell 0.2% to $20.19 billion from $20.23 billion.

Stock Price Performance: From June 29, 2012 to August 1, 2012, the stock price rose $3.72 (6.17%), from $60.29 to $64.27. It saw one of its worst periods between June 14, 2012 and June 21, 2012 when shares fell for six straight days, dropping 5.4% (-$3.43) over that span.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: On average, analysts predict $20.26 billion in revenue this quarter, a decline of 2.9% from the year-ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $83.94 billion for the year, a rise of 1.7% from last year’s revenue of $82.56 billion.

Key Stats:

On the top line, the company is looking to get back on the right track after last quarter’s drop snapped a string of revenue increases. Revenue rose 10.2% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year, 8.9% in the first quarter and 3.7%in the second quarter before dropping in the third quarter.

An income boost this time around would be welcome news after profit drops in the past three quarters. Net income fell 1.9% in the first quarter, by 49.3% in the second quarter and again in the third quarter.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 0.86 last quarter. The current ratio is an indication of a firm’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands and generally, a ratio less than one could indicate a company may have difficulty meeting current obligations.

Analyst Ratings: With 10 analysts rating the stock as a buy, two rating it as a sell and 11 rating it as a hold, there are indications of a bullish outlook.

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(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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