The Procter & Gamble Company PG ended fiscal 2025 on a resilient note, navigating a volatile landscape of inflation, tariffs and shifting consumer trends. The consumer goods giant reported fourth-quarter fiscal 2025 core EPS of $1.48, up 6% year over year, and organic sales growth of 2%, driven by balanced contributions from pricing and volume. Growth remained broad-based, with nine of 10 product categories advancing, led by gains in Fabric, Home and Personal Health Care. The company’s consistent execution and cost productivity helped it deliver balanced top and bottom-line growth while returning $16 billion in cash to shareholders.
Looking ahead, fiscal 2026 poses new challenges. Management expects organic sales growth of up to 4% but faces a projected $1-billion tariff headwind that may trim roughly five percentage points from core EPS growth. To offset this, the company plans to leverage productivity gains, pricing actions and innovation-led value creation.
Procter & Gamble’s ongoing two-year restructuring initiative, targeting portfolio simplification, supply-chain optimization and organizational agility, is expected to enhance efficiency and fund innovation investments. Breakthrough launches like Tide evo, a waterless, recyclable detergent and Swiffer PowerMop, the brand’s biggest product debut to date, illustrate PG’s ability to sustain category growth and consumer engagement.
As macro uncertainty persists, the company’s ability to balance pricing power with consumer value perception will determine whether it can sustain steady gains amid the tariff-driven turbulence. With a sharpened focus on superiority, digital capability and market expansion, PG aims to create its tailwinds. The key question for investors: can it maintain its growth momentum amid intensifying tariff and cost pressures?
Tariff Headwinds for PG’s Competitors: CL, CLX & CHD
Tariff pressures are not just a hurdle for Procter & Gamble; rivals like Colgate-Palmolive Company CL, The Clorox Company CLX and Church & Dwight Co., Inc. CHD are also bracing for margin strain as rising trade costs threaten to erode pricing flexibility and supply-chain efficiency across the consumer staples landscape.
Clorox enters fiscal 2026 amid tariff and cost headwinds that threaten to affect its recovery momentum. Despite progress on cost-saving and productivity initiatives, the company faces persistent inflation in manufacturing and logistics, rising promotional spending and ongoing category softness. With ERP-related shipment timing creating a tough comparison and organic sales expected to decline modestly, fiscal 2026 shapes up as a transitional year focused on stabilizing performance and restoring margin strength.
Colgate continues to battle tariff and cost pressures that are straining margins and growth prospects. Persistent raw material inflation, unfavorable currency movements and soft category demand weighed on second-quarter 2025 performance, with the gross margin contracting 70 bps to 60.1%. Despite disciplined cost management and stable pricing, elevated input costs and currency volatility remain key challenges. Year 2025 is shaping up as a period of cautious execution amid macro and tariff-related headwinds.
Church & Dwight faces mounting pressure from tariffs, inflation and slowing category consumption in the U.S. With price hikes largely off the table amid consumer fatigue, the company is absorbing rising input and tariff costs, eroding margins. The gross margin contracted 410 bps in second-quarter 2025, and further compression is expected this year. Despite productivity gains and selective brand investments, 2026 remains a margin-constrained, transition-focused year for CHD.
Zacks Rundown for PG
Procter & Gamble’s shares have lost 3.5% in the past three months compared with the industry’s decline of 6.2%.
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From a valuation standpoint, PG trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 21.03X, higher than the industry’s 18.7X.
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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Procter & Gamble’s fiscal 2026 and 2027 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 2.2% and 6%, respectively. Earnings estimates for fiscal 2026 and 2027 have been southbound in the past seven days.
PG currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
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Procter & Gamble Company (The) (PG): Free Stock Analysis Report Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL): Free Stock Analysis Report The Clorox Company (CLX): Free Stock Analysis Report Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (CHD): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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