Church & Dwight Sees Q4 EPS Below View, Updates FY View; Plans $500 Mln Buyback

(RTTNews) - Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (CHD), a manufacturer of personal care, household and specialty products, on Thursday said it expects fourth-quarter earnings per share to be $0.42, a 2% increase over the prior year quarter.

On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $0.44 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company expects a net 1% to 2% reported and organic sales growth for the total Company in the fourth quarter. Reported and organic sales growth would be approximately 2.5% for global Consumer Products. The Consumer organic growth will be partially offset by continued headwinds in the Specialty Products business.

For the full year 2016, the company said it is tightening EPS growth at the lower end of previous range of 14-15% reported and 8-9% adjusted to 14% and 8%, respectively. This outlook is top tier within the consumer packaged goods industry.

Church & Dwight now expects reported and organic sales growth at the lower end of 3-4% range for the total Company. This reflects approximately 4% reported and organic sales growth for global Consumer Products partially offset by significantly lower Specialty Products sales.

The company continues to expect gross margin to expand by approximately 110 basis points due to continued lower commodity costs and greater distribution efficiencies. Operating margin is expected to expand approximately 60 basis points when adjusted for the 2015 pension settlement charge.

Further, for fiscal 2017, the company expects to achieve high single digit earnings per share growth in 2017 excluding the adoption impact of an accounting change related to stock option compensation. This represents top tier results within the consumer packaged goods industry.

The company said that its planning process for 2017 will be finalized over the next several months.

Further, the company said its Board of Directors has authorized a new program to repurchase $500 million of the Company's common stock. The previously authorized share repurchase program has been terminated.