(Reuters) -Colgate Palmolive India posted a drop in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday, as sales slowed down on softening urban demand and intensified competition.
The toothpaste maker’s net profit fell 6.5% to 3.55 billion Indian rupees ($41.51 million) in the quarter ended March 31.
Revenue from operations declined nearly 2% to 14.52 billion rupees. Expenses, meanwhile, were largely flat year-on-year.
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KEY CONTEXT
The local arm of Colgate-Palmolive, known for its eponymous range of Colgate toothpastes, has been grappling with sluggish urban demand for its oral care products.
Consumer demand in rural regions has outpaced urban areas for more than a year now, helped by state-run support schemes and a strong harvest, while city-dwellers face slowing wage growth.
The company pointed to a “challenging operating environment” in the second half of fiscal 2025, which runs from April 2024 to March 2025. Its marketing and promotional expenses rose year-on-year in the fourth quarter, amid higher competition with other players.
Colgate expects a gradual recovery in market conditions in the second half of the year.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
months) months)
RIC PE EV/EBI Price/ Revenue Profit Mean No. of Stock to Div
TDA Sales growth (%) growth (%) rating* analyst price yield
s target** (%)
Colgate-Palmolive 44.55 31.94 NULL 8.09 8.90 Hold 28 0.93 1.90
(India)
Godrej Consumer 53.08 36.92 8.25 9.32 22.59 Buy 33 0.93 1.59
Products
Hindustan Unilever 50.15 34.64 8.45 5.13 4.95 Buy 18 0.93 1.84
Dabur India 40.80 31.91 6.28 7.71 10.10 Hold 39 0.92 1.16
* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** The ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT
JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 85.5270 Indian rupees
($1 = 85.5270 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Ananta Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Shailesh Kuber)
