P&G Raises Sales Outlook, Driven by Higher Prices. The Stock Is Climbing.

Procter & Gamble beat quarterly earnings expectations and raised its outlook for sales growth on Friday. The consumer-goods company said sales were being driven by price increases.

P&G (ticker: PG) reported net earnings of $1.37 a share for its third quarter to March 31, up 3% from the same period a year earlier. Net sales rose 4% to $20.1 billion.

Analysts had expected earnings of $1.35 a share on sales of $19.28 billion, according to a FactSet poll.

P&G shares were up 1.4% in premarket trading on Friday.

"Our team's strong execution of our strategies and our progress through three quarters enable us to raise our fiscal-year outlook for sales growth and cash return to shareowners and maintain our guidance range for EPS growth despite continued cost and foreign-exchange headwinds," CEO Jon Moeller noted, in the company's earnings release .

P&G said the organic-sales increase was driven by a 10% rise in prices, partially offset by a fall in shipment volumes.

P&G raised its outlook for organic sales growth for fiscal 2023, the 12 months through the end of June, to around 6% from a range of 4% to 5% previously. The company maintained its outlook for full-year growth in earnings per share to be at the lower end of a range from 0% to 4%.

It said it now expects to pay around $9 billion in dividends and to repurchase $7.4 billion to $8 billion of its common shares in its current fiscal year. It had previously guided for share repurchases of $6 billion to $8 billion.

The company had already said earlier this month that it would raise its quarterly dividend to 94.07 cents a share, up 3%.