Procter & Gamble vs Colgate-Palmolive: Two Consumer Giants, Two Strategies, One Invests, Other Optimizes

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG | PG Price Prediction) and Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) both posted top and bottom line beats in their most recent quarters.

PG’s fiscal Q3 2026 leaned on Beauty and broad regional strength. Colgate’s Q1 2026 leaned on Latin America and Hill’s Pet. Same shelf, very different engines.

Beauty Powers P&G. Latin America Powers Colgate.

P&G’s headline was breadth. Revenue of $21.23 billion rose 7.4% YoY, and every one of the five segments grew. Beauty led with 11% reported growth, powered by Hair Care, Skin Care and premium play SK-II, which the CFO said grew 18% overall with double-digit gains in China.

Core EPS of $1.59 beat consensus, the fourth straight quarter of doing so. The catch: core gross margin fell 100 basis points on tariffs and mix, and currency-neutral core EPS was flat.

Colgate’s story was geographic imbalance. Total revenue of $5.32 billion grew 8.4% YoY, with Latin America up 14.8% and Europe up 11.9%. North America went the other way, sliding 1.8% on a 3.2% volume decline.

CEO Noel Wallace said “North America was going to take some time” and pointed to late shelf resets and heavier competitor couponing. Hill’s Pet Nutrition kept humming, up 6.7% with a boost from Prime100.

One Reinvests Into Momentum. One Restructures Harder.

CEO Shailesh Jejurikar said P&G is “increasing investments to accelerate momentum with consumers despite the challenging geopolitical and economic environment”.

That framing runs through Tide Evo, the biggest formula upgrade in 25 years, and Mr. Clean innovation delivering 18x fair share of bath cleaning category growth since launch. Tariffs sting to the tune of roughly $400 million after-tax, and management now guides to the low end of the $6.83 to $7.09 core EPS range.

Colgate is choosing surgery. It expanded the SGPP restructuring to $350 to $550 million in cumulative pretax charges targeting $200 to $300 million in annual savings.

Gross margin guidance flipped from up to down thanks to $300 million in extra raw materials and logistics costs, with oil byproducts expected up more than 20% year over year. Advertising still climbed to $734 million, so Wallace is not starving the brands.

The Next Test Is Whether North America Wakes Up

For Colgate, the whole thesis rides on U.S. shelves normalizing after late resets and on Hill’s holding its premium pricing. Shares are up 21.89% year to date, so the market has already granted some benefit of the doubt.

P&G’s next hurdle is different. Grooming and Health Care volumes need to turn, and the $1 billion pretax oil-linked headwind the CFO flagged will land mostly in Q4. Stock is up 7.18% YTD and still down 3.4% over the past year.

P&G as Ballast, Colgate as the Rebound Trade Setup

P&G screens as the steadier of the two. The breadth of growth, all 10 categories and all 7 regions up, plus a 70th consecutive annual dividend increase, is the kind of consistency I want when tariffs and oil are wild cards.

For a turnaround profile, Colgate carries the more asymmetric setup. The North America drag is real, but Latin America is doing heavy lifting and the SGPP savings could compound if Wallace’s team executes. Both names get harder to underwrite if Brent sits near $110 for long.

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