Church & Dwight Consumer Products Drive Steady Growth

If there's a way to keep setting new stock highs every year without much fanfare, Church & Dwight (CHD) has figured out how to do it.

Church & Dwight makes and sells a range of consumer products under different brand names.

Its lineup includes everything from Arm & Hammer baking soda and Oxiclean stain remover to First Response pregnancy tests, Trojan condoms and Orange Glo floor cleaners.

Most of the goods are value priced, though Church & Dwight also offers a few premium brands.

The popularity of Church & Dwight's products have helped it build a record of steady sales and earnings gains through the years, no matter the economy.

The company even grew sales and earnings in both 2009 and 2010, when consumers were spooked silly by the Great Recession and financial crisis.

While many consumers are aware of Church & Dwight's brands, they probably have never heard of the company itself. About the only place it does get much notice is on Wall Street, where it has established a reputation for strong dividends and rising value.

Since 2001, the company's stock price has increased every year except 2005, when it basically moved sideways. Shares continue to rise this year, reaching a record high of 60.49 on Tuesday.

"Church & Dwight has one of the most interesting stories (in the consumer products sector), and one of the highest valuations as a result," noted Leigh Ferst, analyst at Wellington Shields.

"Robust Cash Flow"

She says that valuation is "deserved" because of Church & Dwight's "consistent double-digit earnings, robust cash flow and a well-balanced strategy to go for value shoppers without ignoring opportunities for premium positioning in some of its categories."

Church & Dwight operates in three segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International and Specialty Products Division (SPD).

The Consumer Domestic unit provides the lion's share of revenue. It offers household products such as laundry detergent, fabric softener and cat litter as well as personal care products like toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorants and home pregnancy test kits.

The Consumer International segment sells much the same stuff, only to international markets such as Canada, France, Australia, the U.K., Mexico, Brazil and China. International sales accounted for 17% of the total last quarter.

The SPD segment offers specialty chemicals, such as sodium bicarbonate and potassium carbonate, animal nutrition products such as feed-grade sodium bicarbonate, and specialty cleaners for various industrial, institutional, medical and food applications.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BusinessRss/~3/szIWhlN6xIg/church-and-dwight-stock-sets-new-high.htm

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