Colgate-Palmolive net up; margins off, pricing up

TEL AVIV (MarketWatch)
Colgate-Palmolive Co., the New York consumer-products company, reported third-quarter net income rose 3.9% on 11% higher revenue.
Profit reached $643 million, or $1.31 a share, from $619 million, or $1.21, in the year-earlier period.
Revenue rose to $4.38 billion from $3.94 billion.
A survey of analysts by FactSet Research produced a consensus estimate of $1.30 a share of profit on $4.36 billion of revenue.
Gross-profit margin narrowed to 56.2% from 59.4%.
Pricing rose 2%, CL said in a Thursday statement.
Given higher costs, the company expects gross margin for the year to narrow 1.5 to 1.7 percentage points, said Ian Cook, chairman, president and chief executive. Colgate-Palmolive aims "to return to double-digit earnings-per-share growth in 2012," he said.