Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD) Q3 2024 Earnings Conference Call November 1, 2024 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Matt Farrell - Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Rick Dierker - Chief Financial Officer and Head of Business Operations
Conference Call Participants
Chris Carey - Wells Fargo Securities
Rupesh Parikh - Oppenheimer
Bonnie Herzog - Goldman Sachs
Steve Powers - Deutsche Bank
Dara Mohsenian - Morgan Stanley
Peter Grom - UPS
Anna Lizzul - Bank of America
Lauren Lieberman - Barclays
Kevin Grundy - BNP Paribas
Andrea Teixeira - JPMorgan
Filippo Falorni - Citi
Bill Chappell - Truist Securities
Olivia Tong - Raymond James
Javier Escalante - Evercore
Korinne Wolfmeyer - Piper Sandler
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Church & Dwight's Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call.
Before we begin, I've been asked to remind you that on this call, the company's management may make forward-looking statements regarding, among other things, the company's financial objectives and forecasts. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and other factors that are described in detail in the company's SEC filings.
I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Mr. Matt Farrell, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Church & Dwight. Please go ahead, sir.
Matt Farrell
Hi. Good morning, everyone and thanks for joining us today. I'll begin with a review of the Q3 results, then I'll turn the mic over to Rick Dierker, our CFO and Head of Business Operations. And once Rick is done, we'll open the call up for some Q&A.
All right, Q3 was another solid quarter for Church & Dwight. Reported sales growth was 3.8%, which beat our outlook of 2.5%. And that was thanks to strong results from our domestic, international and specialty products businesses.
Organic sales grew 4.3%, which exceeded our 3% Q3, outlook, with volume accounting for a very healthy 3.1% of our growth. Adjusted gross margin expanded 60 basis points. At the same time, we increased marketing spending, and we gained market share in the majority of our categories.
Adjusted EPS was $0.79, which was $0.12 higher than our $0.67 outlook. So nice beat, the quality results were driven by higher than expected sales growth, and gross margin expansion. Our online class of trade continues to perform well, with online sales as a percentage of global sales at approximately 21%.
Next, I'm going to comment on each of the three businesses. And the first up will be the U.S. business, with 3.3% organic sales growth. Volume growth was 2.6%, and this is the fifth consecutive quarter of volume growth in our U.S. business, with five of our seven power brands gaining market share in the quarter.