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Q3 2025 Procter & Gamble Co Earnings Call

In This Article:

Participants

Andre Schulten; Chief Financial Officer; Procter & Gamble Co

Lauren Lieberman; Analyst; Barclays Investment Bank

Bryan Spillane; Analyst; Bank of America

Stephen Powers; Analyst; Deutsche Bank

Dara Mohsenian; Analyst; Morgan Stanley

Filippo Falorni; Analyst; Citi

Christopher Carey; Analyst; Wells Fargo

Peter Grom; Analyst; UBS

Bonnie Herzog; Analyst; Goldman Sachs

Mark Astrachan; Analyst; Stifel Financial Corp.

Andrea Teixeira; Analyst; JPMorgan

Olivia Tong; Analyst; Raymond James

Robert Ottenstein; Analyst; Evercore ISI

Kevin Grundy; Analyst; BNP Paribas Securities Corp.

Kaumil Gajrawala; Analyst; Jefferies

Robert Moskow; Analyst; TD Cowen

Korinne Wolfmeyer; Analyst; Piper Sandler

Presentation

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to Procter & Gamble's quarter-end conference call. Today's event is being recorded for replay.
This discussion will include a number of forward-looking statements. If you will refer to P&G's most recent 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K reports, you will see a discussion of factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from these projections.
As required by Regulation G, Procter & Gamble needs to make you aware that during the discussion, the company will make a number of references to non-GAAP and other financial measures. Procter & Gamble believes these measures provide investors with useful perspective on underlying business trends and has posted on its investor relations website, www.pginvestor.com, a full reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures.
Now I will turn the call over to P&G's Chief Financial Officer, Andre Schulten.

Andre Schulten

Good morning, everyone. Joining me on the call today is John Chevalier, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. I will start with an overview of third quarter results. and spend a few minutes on strategy and innovation. We'll close with guidance for fiscal '25 and then we will take your questions.
Third quarter results on both the top and bottom lines were heavily impacted by consumer and retailer volatility during the quarter, primarily in the US and Europe. As we highlighted at the CAGNY conference in late February, our approach in the face of this near-term volatility is to protect our investment in our long-term health of our brands, innovation and demand creation. We are adjusting our fiscal year guidance in accordance with this approach. Organic sales for the quarter grew 1%.
Volume and mix were in line with prior year and pricing at 1 point to organic sales growth. Growth remained relatively broad-based across categories with 7 of 10 product categories holding or growing organic sales for the quarter. Personal Health Care was up high single digits. Skin & Personal Care grew mid-single; Fabric Care, Oral Care, Feminine Care, Grooming and Hair Care were each in line to up low single digits; family Care, Baby Care and Home Care were each down low singles. Organic sales in focus markets grew 1% and enterprise markets grew 2%.
Organic sales in North America grew 1%. The change versus the 4% growth trend over the last five quarters was driven by a combination of lower consumer offtake across our categories, which is evident in published market data and trade inventory reductions, which we discussed at CAGNY. One encouraging sign is that we returned to shipment levels consistent with the pace of consumer offtake in the month of March. Another positive sign is that market share held up well within the quarter. Europe focus market organic sales were up 1% as our categories saw similar impacts from consumer confidence.
France continues to be a significant headwind with organic sales down high teens in the quarter versus the base period that grew 20%. We have now annualized the implementation of the [EGalim] law in France and will have easier comps going forward.
Greater China organic sales declined 2%, a modest step-up on the path back to growth in the region. Notably, SK-II in Greater China grew double digits behind strong consumer response to the super premium LXP innovation and the supporting marketing campaign, underlying market conditions remain relatively soft, but we are encouraged by the progress we're seeing in several categories. Latin America led the enterprise markets, delivering 6% organic sales growth despite difficult consumer dynamics in Mexico.
European enterprise markets grew low single digits, and the Asia, Middle East, Africa region declined low singles, tensions in the Middle East have remained high and continue to put pressure on markets and US brands. Global aggregate value share was down modestly versus prior year with 27 of our top 50 category country combinations holding or growing share for the quarter.
On the bottom line, earnings per share were $1.54, up 1% versus prior year on a currency-neutral basis, core EPS increased 3%. Core gross margin was down 30 basis points and core operating margin increased 90 basis points.
Currency-neutral core operating margin increased 100 basis points. We maintained strong margin investment levels supported by 280 basis points of productivity improvement, including adjustments to planned compensation awards given year-to-date trends versus our targets.
Adjusted free cash flow productivity was 75%. We returned nearly $3.8 billion of cash to shareowners this quarter, $2.4 billion in dividends and $1.4 billion in share repurchases. Earlier this month, we announced a 5% increase in our dividend, again, reinforcing our commitment to return cash to shareowners.
This is the 69th consecutive annual dividend increases, and the 135th consecutive year P&G has paid a dividend. To summarize the third quarter, the team managed well with
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