April 24, 2026, Cincinnati—08:11 EDT.
Procter & Gamble topped Wall Street’s profit and sales forecasts Friday, lifted by stronger demand for its beauty and hair-care lines. Still, the company behind Tide and Olay flagged rising commodity costs, linked to the Middle East conflict, as a drag on earnings for the remainder of its fiscal year.
This update lands at a tricky moment for the consumer goods group, with volume growth finally returning just as oil, packaging, and freight expenses start to bite. P&G is now guiding fiscal 2026 earnings toward the low end of its stated range, though it hasn’t changed the range itself.
P&G posted net sales of $21.2 billion for its fiscal third quarter, a 7% increase from last year. Core earnings per share came in at $1.59, up 3%, edging past the $1.56 consensus from Reuters. Revenue cleared analysts’ expectations too, beating the $20.50 billion figure from the LSEG survey.
Organic sales climbed 3%, leaving out the effects of currency swings, deals, or asset sales. That number outpaced every analyst forecast tracked by Bloomberg, notching P&G’s biggest organic gain in over a year.
It wasn’t only about price this quarter. P&G reported a 2% bump in organic volume, with beauty leading—volumes there climbed 5%. Beauty organic sales moved up 7%, thanks to hair care, personal care, and skin care. As for grooming and health-care, volumes slipped.
Chief Executive Shailesh Jejurikar described the results as a “solid acceleration” in top-line growth, adding that P&G plans to boost investment even as it navigates a “challenging geopolitical and economic environment.” Every one of the company’s 10 product categories posted organic sales growth for the quarter, according to Procter & Gamble. Procter & Gamble
The cost side is proving tough. P&G projects an after-tax hit of around $150 million from commodities in fiscal 2026, with tariff expenses expected to tack on another $400 million. Offsetting some of that: a $200 million lift from foreign exchange. All in, management figures these factors will shave 25 cents off per-share earnings.
Procter & Gamble CFO Andre Schulten told CNBC that $100 per barrel oil would hit the company with an estimated $1 billion after-tax cost for the year, Reuters reported in a MarketScreener news flash.
Margins took a hit. P&G’s reported gross margin dropped 1.5 percentage points year over year, and core gross margin slipped by 1 point—pressured by mix, reinvestment, tariffs, and higher commodity costs. Productivity gains and price hikes cushioned some of the blow, the company noted.
P&G shares ticked up ahead of the bell after the report landed. Reuters reported a roughly 2% gain in premarket action, suggesting investors were shrugging off the cost warning—at least for now—thanks to sales and volume figures that cleared a low bar.
Peers aren’t seeing the same trends. According to Reuters, Nestle flagged higher costs tied to the Strait of Hormuz blockade. Over at L’Oreal, sales of premium hair care and fragrances stayed solid in North America and Europe. And Beiersdorf, for its part, hasn’t ruled out price hikes if commodity costs push higher.
The downside risk isn’t minor. A P&G spokesperson told Reuters that if the conflict continues, cost pressures could ramp up as early as the first quarter of fiscal 2027. The company, notably, hasn’t provided any guidance for fiscal 2027. When it comes to tariff refunds, the timeline is still unclear.
P&G left its fiscal 2026 sales growth projection unchanged at 1% to 5% and stuck to the same core EPS range, $6.83 to $7.09. The company is also holding steady on plans for about $10 billion in dividends and around $5 billion in buybacks this fiscal year.
