Colgate-Palmolive profit ticks up, operating margin beats estimates

Colgate-Palmolive (India)

Colgate-Palmolive (India) on October 20 said it recorded 3.3 percent year-on-year growth in profit for the September quarter, with operating margin beating estimates.

Profit stood at Rs 278 crore, the oral care company said in its BSE filing.

Revenue from operations came in at Rs 1,387.5 crore, growing 2.6 percent.

Topline as well as profit were broadly in line with estimates, according to the average of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Colgate continues to remain cautiously optimistic on the overall growth trend, especially in rural areas, and is encouraged by the growth of modern trade and e-commerce businesses in the current quarter, Prabha Narasimhan, Managing Director, said.

She further said core brands like Colgate Strong Teeth, Colgate MaxFresh, and Colgate Active Salt continued to report healthy growth.

At the operating level, core profit increased 1.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 407 crore and margin contracted 40 basis points to 29.4 percent but beat the CNBC-TV18 poll estimate of 28.3 percent due in part to lower employee costs and advertising expenses.

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Gross margin also contracted by more than 3 percentage points to 70.72 percent.

"While the macroeconomic environment stabilises, our endeavour will be to deliver sustainable gross margins and continue to invest in core while driving premiumisation and category expansion into personal care," Narasimhan said.

Colgate has declared its first interim dividend of Rs 18 per share for the financial year 2022-23.

The stock reacted positively to the numbers, rising nearly one percent to Rs 1,590.55 on the BSE at the time of writing this story.