Will Colgate-Palmolive Company’s (NYSE:CL) Earnings Grow In The Years Ahead?

The latest earnings update Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) released in December 2018 confirmed that the business gained from a strong tailwind, leading to a double-digit earnings growth of 19%. Below, I’ve laid out key numbers on how market analysts perceive Colgate-Palmolive’s earnings growth trajectory over the next few years and whether the future looks even brighter than the past. I will be looking at earnings excluding extraordinary items to exclude one-off activities to get a better understanding of the underlying drivers of earnings.

View our latest analysis for Colgate-Palmolive

Analysts’ expectations for the upcoming year seems pessimistic, with earnings falling by -0.4%. But in the following year, there is a complete contrast in performance, with generating double digit 3.9% compared to today’s level and continues to increase to US$2.6b in 2022.

While it is helpful to be aware of the growth rate each year relative to today’s level, it may be more beneficial to analyze the rate at which the earnings are growing every year, on average. The benefit of this technique is that we can get a bigger picture of the direction of Colgate-Palmolive’s earnings trajectory over the long run, irrespective of near term fluctuations, which may be more relevant for long term investors. To calculate this rate, I put a line of best fit through the forecasted earnings by market analysts. The slope of this line is the rate of earnings growth, which in this case is 2.5%. This means, we can anticipate Colgate-Palmolive will grow its earnings by 2.5% every year for the next few years.

Next Steps:

For Colgate-Palmolive, I’ve compiled three important aspects you should further examine:

1. Financial Health: Does it have a healthy balance sheet? Take a look at our free balance sheet analysis with six simple checks on key factors like leverage and risk.
2. Valuation: What is CL worth today? Is the stock undervalued, even when its growth outlook is factored into its intrinsic value? The intrinsic value infographic in our free research report helps visualize whether CL is currently mispriced by the market.
3. Other High-Growth Alternatives: Are there other high-growth stocks you could be holding instead of CL? Explore our interactive list of stocks with large growth potential to get an idea of what else is out there you may be missing!

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at [email protected]. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading.