Should I Buy Procter & Gamble Co (PG) Stock? 3 Pros, 3 Cons

Advertisement

PG stock - Should I Buy Procter & Gamble Co (PG) Stock? 3 Pros, 3 Cons

Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) has been undergoing a major transformation. And so far, the response from Wall Street has been tepid. For the past year, PG stock is up about 8%.

Should I Buy Procter & Gamble Co (PG) Stock? 3 Pros, 3 Cons

But then again, turnarounds do take time — especially for companies at the scale of Procter & Gamble. Despite this, the company has certainly taken swift and bold actions.

For example, there was the $11.4 billion sale of 41 specialty beauty brands — such as CoverGirl and Clairol — to Coty Inc (NYSE:COTY) back in October. Oh, and there was also the sale of the Duracell business to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A, NYSE:BRK.B) for $1.8 billion in cash and 52 million shares of its holdings of PG stock.

But are these moves enough? Or must the company do more to get back into the growth mode? Well, to see, let’s take a look at three pros and cons:

PG Stock Pros

Global Platform: The roots of P&G go back to 1837. So yes, the company knows how to adapt to change. It certainly helps that P&G has a tremendous portfolio of brands, such as Bounty, Charmin, Crest Dawn, Downy, Febreze, Gillette…just to name a few.

But with the restructuring, the company has focused on only 10 categories. For the most part, P&G wants to invest in those product lines that have stronger growth prospects and higher margins.

Meanwhile, P&G has been investing aggressively in its e-commerce business, which is at about $3 billion in annual sales. In fact, more than $1 billion is expected to come from China this year. Because P&G’s products are often used daily, they are a great fit for subscription-based business models, which should allow for stronger customer loyalty and recurring revenues.

Innovation: In an interview with CNBC, P&G CEO David Taylor noted: “I believe very much that it will come down ultimately to innovation that builds categories, and if we do our job better than others, we’ll get a little bit of share growth.”

The good news is that the company has a good track record with bringing innovative products to market.

Here are just a few examples:

  • During the past ten years, Febreze has transformed the once-stagnant market for car air refreshers.
  • Always adult diapers have turned into a growth business because of the positive demographics.
  • Pure Clean is the first bio-based detergent, which provides the cleaning power of Tide. Since its launch a year ago, the product already has 7% of the pure and naturals category.

Financials: One of the benefits of the restructuring is that there have been nice cost savings. These have come from improved synergies, such as with marketing, R&D and the supply chain.

Yet PG is far from done with its efforts. Keep in mind that — for the next five years — the company says it can realize a hefty $10 billion in productivity improvements.

What’s more, P&G has remained very shareholder friendly. To this end, it has returned over $123 billion to investors through dividends, share repurchases and exchanges during the past ten fiscal years.

PG Stock Cons

Global Headwinds: P&G is a true global operator, with about 60% of revenues coming from outside the US. The problem is that the company has been exposed to the headwinds from a soaring dollar as well as wrenching volatility in various countries like Egypt, Turkey, Russia, Argentina and even Nigeria. Furthermore, if Trump gets more aggressive with his trade policies, this could make it even tougher for P&G to do business.

Yet the biggest problem is likely to remain the adverse impact of currency translations. After all, despite the efforts to reduce costs, they have not been enough. During the prior fiscal year, P&G suffered a 6% decline in revenues because of the currency losses.

Valuation: P&G stock is not cheap, with the price-to-earnings ratio at about 23. According to Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s (NYSE:GS) Jason English, the multiple is at the highest levels in a decade. Granted, P&G does probably deserve some type of premium since the company has a solid business, which is likely to see fairly consistent cash flows. But the real issue is the sluggish growth. Keep in mind that the organic growth is a mere 2%. And so far, there are few signs that there will be much of an acceleration any time soon.

Retail Problems: The industry is under tremendous pressure as more people move toward e-commerce purchases. The result is that retailers — like Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) and Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) — are trying to find ways to improve margins. Of course, an obvious strategy is to squeeze suppliers.

This is certainly bad news for P&G, which relies heavily on retail channels. Note that WMT is the company’s largest customer, accounting four roughly 15% of overall sales.

Bottom Line On PG Stock

Over the past few years, P&G has done a great job in restructuring the company. By focusing on fewer brands, the company is likely to realize nice cost synergies and improvements in product quality.

It is also a big advantage that P&G has a very stable business. During the past 126 consecutive years, the company has paid a dividend. Oh, and there have been increases for 60 consecutive years!

But this may not be enough, at least for shareholders. Again, the growth rate remains lackluster and the valuation is pricey. So when weighing the pros and cons, it’s probably best to wait on PG stock for now.

Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook and also has his own free iOS app to estimate your tax refund, which is at PathwayTax.comFollow him on Twitter at @ttaulli. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books. They include Artificial Intelligence Basics and the Robotic Process Automation Handbook. His upcoming book is called Generative AI: How ChatGPT and other AI Tools Will Revolutionize Business.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2017/02/should-i-buy-procter-gamble-co-pg-stock-pros-cons/.

©2024 InvestorPlace Media, LLC