Procter & Gamble posts quarterly profit, plans buybacks

PROCTER & Gamble Co posted a drop in quarterly sales on Friday, just weeks after the world's largest household products maker took the blame for its disappointing performance and said it was focusing on ways to improve.

The Results" target="_blank">RESULTS will be closely watched for any early signals of how well P&G and its current leadership can fix a long list of problems, especially after activist investor William Ackman stepped in and bought about $1.8 billion worth of its shares.

The maker of Pampers diapers and Tide laundry detergent also said it would repurchase $4 billion worth of its shares this fiscal year, reversing June comments that it did not expect to do so.

P&G earned $3.63 billion, or $1.24 per share, in the fourth quarter ended on June 30, compared with $2.51 billion, or 84 cents per share, a year earlier.

Core earnings of 82 cents per share, in line with a year earlier, topped the high end of a forecast P&G gave in June.

Sales fell 1 percent to $20.21 billion.