Emerging Markets Focus Will Sustain Future Profitability

Key Takeaways

• Strategic innovation and market adaptation drive revenue growth, leveraging advertising and premium products to navigate market volatility and achieve profitability.
  
• Focus on geographic diversity and strategic pricing in emerging markets ensures consistent revenue growth and net margin stability.
  
• Pricing pressures in North America and economic volatility in emerging markets threaten Colgate's revenue growth and margin stability.

Catalysts

Manufactures and sells consumer products in the United States and internationally.

• Colgate-Palmolive is seeing broad-based volume growth across its divisions, driven by impactful core and premium innovation, as well as increased advertising spending, which is expected to stimulate revenue growth.
  
• The company is focusing on geographic breadth and category mix to better handle market volatility, aiming for sustained, profitable growth, even as pricing growth recedes, which is likely to support net margin stability.
  
• Gross margin expansion has enabled increased investment in advertising and capabilities, with the goal of turning organic sales growth into consistent earnings per share growth, supporting future earnings potential.
  
• In North America, Colgate-Palmolive is adapting its pricing and promotional strategies to boost volume recovery, which is expected to help stabilize and eventually grow revenues in the region.
  
• Strategic focus on innovation, particularly in emerging markets like Brazil, India, and Mexico, alongside premiumization and per capita consumption strategies, is expected to continue driving organic sales revenue growth.

Colgate-Palmolive Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• Analysts are assuming Colgate-Palmolive's revenue will grow by 3.4% annually over the next 3 years.
• Analysts assume that profit margins will increase from 14.3% today to 15.8% in 3 years time.
• Analysts expect earnings to reach $3.5 billion (and earnings per share of $4.41) by about December 2027, up from $2.9 billion today. The analysts are largely in agreement about this estimate.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 28.3x on those 2027 earnings, up from 26.6x today. This future PE is greater than the current PE for the US Household Products industry at 25.7x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to decline by 0.79% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 5.92%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Colgate-Palmolive Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• North America is experiencing a significant decline in pricing for the second quarter in a row, indicating a highly competitive environment, which could pressure revenue and margins if it necessitates further price cuts to maintain market share.
  
• Colgate's Skin Health volumes in North America were negatively impacted by inventory adjustments in e-commerce, reflecting potential challenges in distribution channels that might affect revenues and growth.
  
• Colgate's performance in emerging markets is driven by pricing strategies to offset FX pressures, suggesting limited volume growth contribution, which could dampen net revenue growth if FX volatility persists.
  
• The persistence of geopolitical and economic volatility in emerging markets poses a risk to Colgate's revenues and growth projections, as these regions are primary growth drivers for the company.
  
• The slowdown in the Latin American market due to Mexico's post-election choppiness and currency volatility presents a risk to revenue stabilization and margin management in one of its key markets.

Valuation

• The analysts have a consensus price target of $105.0 for Colgate-Palmolive based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors. However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of $121.0, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just $83.11.
• In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2027, revenues will be $22.2 billion, earnings will come to $3.5 billion, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 28.3x, assuming you use a discount rate of 5.9%.
• Given the current share price of $93.49, the analyst's price target of $105.0 is 11.0% higher.
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.