(Reuters) -Procter & Gamble Co beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly sales on Friday, as the consumer goods giant benefited from multiple price hikes and resilient demand for its cleaning products, paper towels and other household products.
P&G’s better-than-expected results, like those of Unilever and Nestle, show that major global consumer product and food makers managed to raise their product prices enough to offset recent increases in their transportation, commodity and labor costs.
The company’s shares rose about 1% in premarket trading.
Investors are currently raising concerns about when and if the companies’ recent price hikes will start to turn shoppers off to their brand name products. Many consumers around the world face relatively high costs of living, including rising interest rates that affect households budgets.
Overall volumes fell 1% in the fourth quarter, while average prices across its product categories rose 7%. In comparison, P&G hiked prices by 10% in the third quarter, and its sales volume fell 3%.
The Tide detergent maker’s fourth-quarter net sales rose to $20.55 billion from $19.52 billion, a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected $19.98 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru and Kailyn Rhone in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
