UPDATE: Colgate-Palmolive Posts Higher Q4 Earnings, Shares Gain

Shares of

surged around 3% in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings. The New York-based company posted a quarterly profit of $628 million, or $0.68 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $564 million, or $0.60 per share. Excluding certain items, the company's earnings surged to $0.76 per share from $0.75 per share. Its net sales slipped 3% to $4.22 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.74 per share on revenue of $4.22 billion. The company's organic sales gained 6% in the quarter, while organic sales in emerging markets rose 9.5%. North America net sales rose 1.0% in the quarter, while Latin America net sales fell 6.0%. Europe/South Pacific net sales tumbled 7.5%, while Asia net sales rose 4.5%. Africa/Eurasia net sales slipped 10.0% in the quarter. Hill's net sales dropped 1.0% in the quarter. Global unit volume increased 2.5% in the quarter. Gross profit margin narrowed to 58.6% from 58.9%, while operating profit gained 12% to $995 million. Ian Cook, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer said, “As we enter 2015, macroeconomic conditions and foreign exchange volatility remain challenging. Despite that, we anticipate another year of solid organic sales growth driven by a full new product pipeline across all categories and geographies. While our long term goal of double-digit annual earnings per share growth remains unchanged, we continue to see significant deterioration in foreign exchange rates. As a result, we are planning for a year of gross margin expansion and low-single-digit earnings per share growth on a dollar basis, based on current spot rates and excluding charges related to the 2012 Restructuring Program. This earnings per share growth would reflect a double-digit increase on a currency neutral basis.” Colgate-Palmolive shares surged 2.98% to $67.06 in pre-market trading.