New products enhance its outlook

Article Excerpt

PROCTER & GAMBLE CO. $147 is a buy. The maker of household and personal-care goods (New York symbol PG; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 2.4 billion; Market cap: $352.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.5; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pg.com) plans to earmark about 5% of its sales to the development of new innovative products. For example, one of its most successful new products was the Swiffer line of mops and dusters, launched in 1999. Those products now generate $500 million in annual sales. Procter expects its sales for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2024, will rise between 3% and 4%. Earnings should also rise about 2.5% to $6.05 a share, and the stock trades at a reasonable 24.3 times that estimate. As well, the company increased your quarterly dividend by 2.9% with the May 2023 payment. Investors now receive $0.9407 a share instead of $0.9133. The new annual rate of $3.76 yields 2.6%. Procter has paid shareholder dividends for 133…