P&G Guided Below Estimates and Sits 5% Above a 52-Week Low. I'm Not Buying It Yet, and Here's What Would Change That.

Written by Daniel Sparks for The Motley Fool->

P&G guided fiscal 2027 core earnings per share to $6.89 to $7.11, which implies growth of 0% to 3%.

Management expects about $1 billion in after-tax commodity, energy, and transportation costs, part of a $0.56-per-share drag on earnings growth.

The stock yields about 3% and trades about 5% above its 52-week low.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) shares trade near $144 as of this writing, only about 5% above their 52-week low of $137.62. At that price, the consumer staples giant behind Tide detergent and Pampers diapers yields a little over 3%.

A beaten-down blue chip with a yield like that would usually have me interested. But the guidance P&G issued alongside its fiscal 2026 fourth-quarter report last week explains why I'm not buying yet.

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For fiscal 2027 (the 12 months ending next June), management expects organic sales growth of 1% to 3% and core earnings per share of $6.89 to $7.11. The midpoint of that range, $7.00, implies growth of less than 2%.

And the guide came in slightly below what analysts were expecting. That small gap isn't what bothers me, though. What bothers me is the reason for the soft outlook, which management quantified in unusual detail.

P&G expects about $1 billion in after-tax headwinds from higher raw-material, energy, and transportation costs in fiscal 2027. Higher net interest expense adds another $150 million, lower non-operating income another $150 million, and unfavorable currency about $50 million. Altogether, management says, that's a $0.56-per-share drag -- about 8 percentage points of core earnings-per-share growth wiped out before the year begins.

Of course, a drag that size also says something positive about the business underneath. Strip out those headwinds, and P&G would be growing core earnings per share at about 10%.

But investors don't get to strip them out. Those are real costs, and management expects to absorb them all year.

The recent results show the strain already. In the fiscal fourth quarter (the period ended June 30), net sales rose 2% year over year to $21.2 billion, but organic sales, which exclude the effects of currency and acquisitions, were flat. Core earnings per share of $1.43 declined 3% year over year. The full fiscal year showed the same pattern in slower motion. Net sales rose 3% to $87.0 billion, while organic sales grew just 1% -- and all of that growth came from pricing, with volume and mix unchanged.

The cadence worked the wrong way, too, decelerating from 1% organic growth for the year to flat in the fiscal fourth quarter.

That last detail matters most to me. A consumer products company that grows only by raising prices, while unit volumes sit flat, is arguably testing the limits of its pricing power.

CEO Shailesh Jejurikar called fiscal 2026 "a year of foundation building" in the earnings release. The fiscal 2027 outlook suggests the payoff from that foundation is still a year or more away.

To be fair, P&G pays investors well to wait. The company returned $10.2 billion in dividends and $5.0 billion in share repurchases during fiscal 2026, and it plans roughly the same combination (about $10 billion of dividends and $5 billion of buybacks) for fiscal 2027. The payout looks thoroughly affordable against the company's earnings.

The valuation, however, is only average. Shares trade at about 21 times P&G's fiscal 2026 core earnings of $6.89 per share, and about 20.5 times the midpoint of the new guidance.

That's not an expensive multiple. But it's not a bargain for a business guiding to low-single-digit growth, either. Plenty of companies growing earnings faster can be had in the same valuation neighborhood.

So here's what would change my mind. First, evidence that volumes are growing again: A quarter where organic sales growth comes from consumers buying more products, not just paying more for them, would tell me the foundation building is working.

Second, a better price. At about $130 per share, the stock would yield close to 3.4% at the current payout, enough compensation, in my view, to wait out the cost cycle comfortably.

The wait could end up being short. Commodity costs could ease faster than management expects, and pricing pressure on consumers can fade as quickly as it arrived. P&G could simply out-earn its own cautious guide.

Ultimately, though, neither of my conditions is met today. The dividend looks safe, the business is durable, and P&G may well emerge from this stretch leaner. I'm comfortable being patient here, waiting for one of those two signals.

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Daniel Sparks and his clients do not have positions in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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