Fickle Finance

Posts Tagged ‘conscious shoppers’

The consumer-product Colgate-Palmolive reported a fall of 5.4 percent on its fourth-quarter earnings 2011. The company’s sales reflected a slower than expected results due to higher cost that hurt margins.

The largest toothpaste maker by market share and revenue has currently faced rising costs for resin, oil, and other products necessary to manufacture, ship, and package their products. Also some conscious shoppers have decided to change from branded products to more affordable ones. This is evident especially in developed markets like Europe and US.

The company has increased prices and reduced cost. But it was not able to somehow lessen the higher input cost. As a result, a decline in margins is expected this 2012.

A year earlier, Colgate-Palmolive had a $624 million for profit or $1.24 per share. This year, the profit was down to $590 million or $1.21 per share. Excluding the costs for business realignment and other items however, earnings went up from $1.24 to $1.30.

The revenue jumped by 4.9 percent while the volume went up by 4% along with the price which increased by 3%.

Thomson Reuters recently projected earnings of $1.29 on revenue of 4.18 million dollars. The margin fell from 59.1% to 57.4%.

Also, United Bankshares Inc. reported fourth quarter earnings and full year earnings for 2011. The fourth-quarter shares reached $20.3 million or $0.40 per share. For 2011, its overall earnings were $75.6 million or $1.61 per share.

The results gave an average return of assets of 0.94 % and average equity of 8.17%.  The average assets and average equity is favourable for United’s compared to Federal Reserve peer group with an average asset of 0.79 % and average equity of 7.37%.