(Reuters) – Church & Dwight said on Friday it expects full-year sales and profit at the lower end of its previous forecast due to consumer hesitancy on spending for its higher-priced household and personal care products.
Shares of the Trojan condom maker fell 4.3% in premarket trade.
In a bid to defend their profit margins against higher costs, consumer goods companies including Church & Dwight have been hiking their prices over the past two years, despite some input expenses now declining.
While consumers have absorbed these hikes to buy the company’s products including Therabreath mouthwash and Xtra liquid detergent, a sticky inflation has turned them more cautious.
“Category consumption growth in both dollars and units has moderated as the consumer remains under pressure,” said CEO Matthew Farrell in a statement.
The company saw consumption dollar growth slowing down to 2% in eight main categories from 4.5% in the first 5 months of the year, Farrell added.
The New Jersey-based company now expects full-year adjusted profit growth to be at the lower end of the 8% to 9% range projected earlier.
Annual organic sales are expected to grow by 4%, compared with the previous forecast range of 4% to 5% increase.
However, the household products maker’s second-quarter revenue rose about 4% to $1.51 billion, in line with analysts’ estimates.
Excluding items, it earned 93 cents per share, beating the LSEG expectations of 84 cents.
Volumes rose 3.5% in the quarter ended June 30, while average selling prices climbed by only 1.2%. This helped the adjusted gross margin climb 150 basis points to 45.4%.
(Reporting by Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
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