Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) reported Q3 EPS of $1.26, $0.07 better than the analyst estimate of $1.19. Revenue for the quarter came in at $18.1 billion versus the consensus estimate of $17.92 billion.

“We delivered another quarter of solid top-line, bottom-line and cash results in what continues to be a challenging operating environment,” said David Taylor, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We remain focused on executing our strategies of superiority, productivity, constructive disruption and improving P&G’s organization and culture. These strategies enabled us to build strong business momentum before the COVID crisis and accelerate our progress during the crisis, and they remain the right strategies to deliver balanced growth and value creation over the long term.”

Guidance

P&G maintained its outlook for fiscal 2021 all-in and organic sales growth in the range of five to six percent versus the prior fiscal year. Foreign exchange is expected to be roughly neutral to sales growth for the fiscal year.

The Company said it continues to expect fiscal 2021 GAAP diluted net earnings per share growth in the range of eight to ten percent versus fiscal 2020 GAAP EPS of $4.96. GAAP EPS guidance includes non-core charges of $0.16 per share in fiscal 2021 for early debt retirement and of $0.16 per share in fiscal 2020 for incremental restructuring charges. P&G maintained guidance for core earnings per share growth in the range of eight to ten percent versus fiscal 2020 core EPS of $5.12. The Company said its current outlook includes headwinds of approximately $150 million after-tax from foreign exchange impacts and more than $200 million after-tax from higher freight costs. The Company now expects a headwind from commodity costs of approximately $125 million after-tax versus the previous fiscal year.

The Company is not able to reconcile its forward-looking non-GAAP cash flow measure without unreasonable efforts because the Company cannot predict the timing and amounts of discrete cash items, such as acquisitions, divestitures, or impairments, which could significantly impact GAAP results. The Company now estimates fiscal 2021 adjusted free cash flow productivity to be over 100% for the year.

P&G expects to pay more than $8 billion in dividends in fiscal 2021. The Company increased its outlook for common stock repurchase from up to $10 billion to approximately $11 billion in fiscal 2021. Combined, P&G now plans to return about $19 billion of cash to shareowners in this fiscal year.

The Company added that it has started the process of implementing price increases on its Baby Care, Feminine Care and Adult Incontinence product categories in the United States to offset a portion of the impact of rising commodity costs. P&G said the exact amount of the price increase will vary by brand and sub-brand in the range of mid-to-high single digit percentages and will go into effect in mid-September.

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