Procter & Gamble NYSE:PG will report earnings this week at a time when its stock has fallen some 10% year to date and the consumer-goods giant has badly trailed the S&P 500 for both the one- and five-year periods. What does technical and fundamental analysis show us?
Let's see:
Procter & Gamble's Fundamental Analysis
P&G -- which owns Pampers, Gillette, Tide and many other well-known consumer brands -- plans to report Q3 results on Thursday before the bell.
The numbers will come out when the stock has shed 9.6% so far in 2025 as of Wednesday's close, compared to a 14.5% gain for the S&P 500 SP:SPX . P&G has also trailed the key index over a longer period -- for instance, gaining just 5.8% over the past five years vs. a 95.9% increase for the SPX.
The Street is looking for P&G to report $1.90 in Q3 adjusted earning per share on $22.2 billion of revenue. That would represent roughly 2% in year-over-year sales growth, but a 1.6% y/y decline from P&G's $1.93 adjusted EPS from Q3 2024.
Meanwhile, 13 of the 17 sell-side analysts that I can find that cover P&G have lowered their estimates since the quarter began, while four have left their estimates unrevised.
However, not one analyst has revised his or her estimates higher since the period began.
In fact, two analysts highly rated by TipRanks have cut P&G's price target over the past two weeks. Kaumali Garawala of Jefferies (rated at four stars out of a possible five) and Andrea Faria Teixeira of J.P. Morgan (three stars out of five) both reduced the stock's target price while reiterating "Hold" ratings on it.
Procter & Gamble's Technical Analysis
Here's P&G's chart going back 18 months and running through Monday afternoon:
Readers will first notice a large double-top pattern of bearish reversal, marked with a jagged red line and two red boxes at the chart's center above and featuring a $157 pivot. That helped produce P&G's year-to-date sell-off.
This pattern also spawned a smaller double top with a $155 pivot over the summer, marked with jagged red lines and two red boxes at the chart's right.
But despite all of that negativity, P&G's entire sell-off now presents as a falling-wedge pattern of bullish reversal, denoted with two blue diagonal lines and a blue box at the chart's right.
It doesn't look like the falling wedge is nearing a close. But if it did, the pattern's upside pivots would be P&G's 50-day Simple Moving Average (or "SMA," marked with a single squiggly blue line above) and the stock's 20-day SMA (denoted with a red line).
Going forward, P&G's 21-day Exponential Moving Average (or "EMA," marked with a green line) can carry more sway with swing traders and could serve as the key to getting this stock moving towards those upside pivots.
Looking at P&G's secondary technical indicators, the stock's Relative Strength Index (the gray line at the chart's top) is reaching for neutrality after coming out of a nearly oversold condition.
Meanwhile, the stock's daily Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator (or "MACD," marked with black and gold lines and blue bars at the chart's bottom) had been decisively bearish in posture, but suddenly looks a little bit more bullish.
The histogram of the stock's 9-day EMA has just moved into positive territory after more than a month below the zero-bound. That's typically a short-term bullish sign.
That said, both P&G's 12-day EMA (the black line) and 26-day EMA (the gold line) remain below zero, which is historically bearish. However, the 12-day line has just curled above the 26-day line -- a bullish sign.
All in, these are mixed signals for sure.
A Simple Bull-Call Spread
Options investors who think Intel will react well to this week's earnings might employ a simple bull-call spread.
This strategy consists of a long call and a short call with a higher strike price. Here's an example:
-- Buy one call with an Oct. 24 expiration (which will be after the earnings come out) and a strike price of $152.50 (the stock's 21-day EMA). This will cost about $1.95.
-- Sell one Oct 24 call with a $155 strike (Intel's 50-day SMA) call for about $1.05.
Net Debit: $0.90.
This trade would risk $0.90 to try to gain $1.60 (the difference in the two strike prices less the set-up's net cost). If it works and INTC trades above $155 at expiration, the trader will realize a 178% profit.
But should markets have a negative reaction to earnings and the stock closes below $152.50 this coming Friday, the trader will lose $0.90. That's the maximum theoretical loss on this set-up.
And should the stock look like it will close Friday between $152.50 and $155 and the trader doesn't wany to own Intel, the person could close these options positions before Friday's trading ends.
(Moomoo Technologies Inc. Markets Commentator Stephen "Sarge" Guilfoyle had no position in PG at the time of writing this column.)
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