Procter & Gamble profit meets expectations

Shares of P&G slipped 0.8 per cent to $80 in premarket trading

Procter & Gamble Co's quarterly profit met Wall Street's expectations on Friday helped by growth overseas, cost cuts and a lower tax rate, and the world's largest household products maker maintained its financial forecasts for the year.

Shares of P&G slipped 0.8 per cent to $80 in premarket trading.

The maker of Pampers diapers and Tide detergent said it still expected 5 per cent to 7 per cent growth in earnings per share this fiscal year, excluding restructuring charges. The company abandoned quarterly forecasts earlier this year.

It still expects organic sales, which strip out the impact of currency changes, acquisitions and divestitures, to rise 3 per cent to 4 per cent this fiscal year.

P&G said it had earned $3.03 billion, or $1.04 per share, in the first quarter ended on September 30, up from $2.81 billion, or 96 cents per share, a year earlier. Core earnings per share, which exclude restructuring charges, fell 1 percent to $1.05 and met analysts' expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 2.2 per cent to $21.21 billion, topping Wall Street's forecast of $21.04 billion.

Organic sales rose 4 per cent. Such sales were up in every category except health care, where they were flat, due in part to a pet food recall.