Church & Dwight Posts Higher Q1 Earnings

Church & Dwight Co., Inc. CHD reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter and lifted its full-year outlook for organic sales growth. For the full year, Church & Dwight now projects organic sales to rise 3 percent, versus earlier forecast of 2 percent to 3 percent. However, the company maintained its EPS guidance. For the current quarter, the company expects earnings of $0.70 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.71 per share. The Ewing, New Jersey-based company reported a quarterly profit of $107 million, or $0.80 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $103 million, or $0.73 per share. Its sales gained 3.9 percent to $812 million. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.79 per share on revenue of $819.8 million. The average estimate among 3 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.79 per share and revenue of $815.34 million. The company's consumer domestic sales rose 3.6 percent to $614.6 million, while consumer international sales slipped 2.8 percent to $120.4 million. Specialty Products net sales gained 19.2 percent year-over-year to $77.3 million in the quarter. Gross margin widened 40 basis points to 43.8 percent in the first quarter. Church & Dwight reported that its CEO James R. Craigie will retire on January 1, 2016. James Craigie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are extremely pleased with the sales and earnings growth. The strong momentum we ended 2014 with has continued in early 2015. This year, we launched innovative new products in many of our major categories as we believe that innovation is the key to increasing our market share and reviving category growth in this challenging economy. The results to date are promising, as three out of four megabrands achieved share growth in the first quarter." Church & Dwight shares fell 0.16 percent to $81.65 in pre-market trading.