UPDATE: Church & Dwight Q3 Profit Beats Street View

Church & Dwight Company (NYSE: CHD) reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter and issued a weak forecast for the current quarter.Church & Dwight expects current-quarter earnings of $0.78 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.82 per share. It also projects full-year earnings of $3.01 per share.The Ewing, New Jersey-based company posted a quarterly profit of $115.9 million, or $0.85 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $107.9 million, or $0.76 per share. Church & Dwight had expected earnings of $0.80 to $0.82 per share.Its sales rose 4.6% to $841.8 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.82 per share on revenue of $828.76 million.Cost of sales rose 7.9% to $474.3 million in the quarter.The company's sales of specialty products rose 20.6% to $78.4 million, while consumer domestic sales climbed 3.6% to $627.2 million. Consumer international sales surged 1.3% to $136.2 million.Gross margin narrowed 170 basis points to 43.7% in the quarter versus 45.4%. Income from operations rose 5.6% to $177.2 million in the third quarter.At September 30, 2014, cash on hand was $370 million, while total debt was $1,054 million.The company also named Matthew T. Farrell, 58, as Chief Operating Officer / Chief Financial Officer, effective November 3, 2014.James Craigie, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are pleased with the sales and earnings growth. In early 2014, we launched innovative new products in every one of our major categories and in three new 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 very promising, as all four of our megabrands achieved record shares in the third quarter.”Church & Dwight shares rose 0.12% to close at $72.41 on Friday.