Church & Dwight
Total net sales increased 17% to $518.6 million. The growth in the top-line number includes the effect of a few acquisitions, including a Brazilian skin-care business. Excluding acquisitions and currency influence, net sales advanced only 2.5%. Operating income jumped 28% to $68.9 million. Adjusting that for a litigation issue in the previous year's quarter, as well as current stock option expenses, operating income went up 18%. Net income came in at $38.7 million, or $0.57 per diluted share, vs. $34.6 million, or $0.51 per diluted share, reported one year ago.
Like all consumer companies, including Procter & Gamble
Church & Dwight has the powerful Arm & Hammer brand in its portfolio, along with other familiar products such as Arid antiperspirants and Trojan condoms. As such, it's a typical Peter Lynch business -- a company that a prospective investor knows and buys from. And it has "long term" written all over it.
Dividend investors will take heart in Church & Dwight's proud proclamations that its latest quarterly payment of $0.07 per share is its 423rd consecutive payout. Here's where my complaint about the stock comes in -- while Church & Dwight might be an interesting idea for a core holding in a portfolio, its stock is certainly not yielding enough at this time for me to be compelled to execute further due diligence on it. A yield of 0.7% is just too minimal.
I had a similar issue with Playtex Products
So there you have it. Church & Dwight had an OK quarter, backed by its large portfolio of brands. It's standing up against commodity costs in an able manner, and it has grown margins. But the yield just isn't there for me. If the stock price drops from near the high end of its 52-week range, and its yield becomes more value-oriented, I'll take a look.
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Johnson & Johnson is a Motley Fool Income Investor recommendation, while Colgate-Palmolive is a selection of the Inside Value newsletter.
Fool contributor Steven Mallas owns none of the companies mentioned. As of this writing, he was ranked 1,485 out of 12,354 investors in the CAPS system. Don't know what CAPS is? Check it out. The Fool has a disclosure policy.