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Colgate-Palmolive Tops Estimates at $5.37 Billion as Base Business EPS Hits $0.97

The company narrowed its full-year sales growth outlook and raised its gross margin and Base Business EPS guidance.

By Zintick Team · Editor: Kratik Mehta
Published

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Photo: ESB Professional/Shutterstock.com

Key points

  • Revenue $5.37 billion vs. $5.33 billion analyst consensus: beat
  • Base Business EPS $0.97 vs. $0.93 consensus; GAAP EPS $0.94, up 3%
  • Full-year net sales growth narrowed to 4% to 5%; Base Business EPS growth 5% to 7%
  • Latin America net sales up 12.5%; North America down 1.7%

Colgate-Palmolive Co (NYSE: CL) reported third-quarter net sales of $5.37 billion, above the $5.33 billion analysts expected, and Base Business earnings of $0.97 per share against the consensus estimate of $0.93, in an 8-K filed Friday, Oct. 30.

Net sales rose 4.6% from $5.13 billion a year earlier, and organic sales rose 3.6%. GAAP earnings per share rose 3% to $0.94 from $0.91. Base Business gross profit margin increased 90 basis points to 60.3%.

Division results

Latin America was the strongest division by growth, with net sales up 12.5% to $1.33 billion and operating profit up 17% to $392 million. Hill's Pet Nutrition net sales rose 5.6% to $1.21 billion, and operating profit rose 5% to $267 million.

North America net sales fell 1.7% to $905 million, and operating profit dropped 11% to $177 million. Europe, Middle East & Africa net sales rose 1.4% to $1.13 billion, and Asia Pacific net sales rose 3.5% to $802 million.

Total reported operating profit was $1.09 billion, up 3%. Base Business operating profit was $1.12 billion, up 5%, excluding $29 million of charges tied to the Strategic Growth and Productivity Program.

Guidance

The company now expects full-year net sales to rise 4% to 5%, versus its earlier forecast of 2% to 6%. It expects organic sales growth to be broadly in line with its nine-month performance, versus its earlier range of 1% to 4%.

On a Base Business basis, the company now expects 5% to 7% earnings per share growth, versus mid-single-digit growth previously. It also expects gross profit margin to be up, rather than roughly flat as previously forecast.

For full-year 2026, analysts expected EPS of $3.87 and revenue of $21.40 billion. For the fourth quarter, analysts expected EPS of $0.96 and revenue of $5.40 billion.

Other items

Advertising spending was $775 million, up from $674 million a year earlier. Net cash provided by operations for the first nine months of 2026 was $2.91 billion, and free cash flow before dividends was $2.51 billion. The company's global toothpaste market share was 41.4% year to date.

The shares closed at $93.16 on Thursday, Oct. 29, the last close before the filing.

Sources

Written with AI from the company's results filing with the SEC, analysts' estimates where we had them, and our market data, and checked against those sources before publishing. Our editorial standards.

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Filings, figures and price history are on the Colgate Palmolive page.