One company that had no problem meeting and beating investor expectations was consumer goods behemoth The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG). Delivering its fourth-quarter results on Thursday, The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) delivered $0.79 in core EPS, but the big story was a 4% rise in organic sales growth on 5% unit volume growth. That’s huge for The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) and a signal that its heavy advertising campaign for its core brand-name products might finally be paying dividends. With former CEO A.G. Lafley back at the helm, I have to think The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) has triple-digit share price potential within two years.
Electric utility provider NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) also spent its time in the limelight after reporting its second-quarter results. Overall, revenue improved by a tad more than 4% with adjusted income coming in at $1.46. Comparatively, revenue was about $60 million light, but NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE)’s EPS crushed estimates by $0.17. Furthermore, while NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE:NEE) did forecast that the second half of 2013 will be a bit weaker than the first in terms of earnings growth, it nonetheless guided toward the high end of its previous EPS forecast of $4.70 to $5.
And finally, for one non-earnings-related news event, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) continued to dominate its peers by reporting an 11% increase in July sales, its biggest increase since 2006, and a retail sales surge of 19%, its biggest July increase since 2005, according to its press release. Leading the charge were Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s small and fuel-efficient cars, which delivered sales growth of 32% (the Fiesta led the way with an 89% jump) while its market-leading F-Series pickups drove to their best July in terms of sales since 2006. Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s fresh designs, leading engines, and top-notch leadership look ready to drive it to further gains.
Stay tuned next week when we get our first look at this portfolio in action!
The article The Basic Needs Portfolio originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sean Williams.
Fool contributor Sean Williams has no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen name TMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle @TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool owns shares of, and recommends, Ford, Intel, MasterCard, and Waste Management. It also recommends Chevron and Procter & Gamble.
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