Colgate-Palmolive shares fall on sales, growth concerns

Colgate-Palmolive Co. shares fell Friday after the consumer products maker posted revenue that missed forecasts.

The maker of toothpaste, dishwashing liquid and other household goods reported fourth-quarter earnings of $323 million, or 37 cents per share. The latest quarter includes a charge related to tax reform of 31 cents per share. Excluding that and other non-recurring costs, were 75 cents per share.

Those results met Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was also for earnings of 75 cents per share.

But the New York-based company posted revenue of $3.89 billion in the period, up 4.5 percent from last year but short of Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $3.92 billion.

Stifel analyst called the results "disappointing" and noted an "increasingly challenged" environment, including rising costs and more competition.

Colgate-Palmolive shares fell nearly 6 percent to $72.73 in afternoon trading.

For the year, the company reported a profit of $2.02 billion, or $2.28 per share. Revenue was reported as $15.45 billion.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CL at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CL