CL Colgate-Palmolive
A durable global franchise, but its predictable mid-single-digit growth cannot justify expectations near 15%.
The business
Colgate-Palmolive sells frequently purchased oral-care, personal-care, home-care, and pet-nutrition products worldwide. It earns money through trusted brands, premium pricing, broad retail distribution, and enormous manufacturing and marketing scale. Demand is predictable, although growth depends heavily on pricing and emerging markets.
Quality gate · 91/100
Moat & management
| Moat | wide moat |
| Source | brand |
| Trajectory | stable |
| Management | excellent |
Colgate's oral-care brand, professional endorsements, habitual purchasing, and global distribution reinforce one another. Private labels and local competitors limit expansion, but the core moat appears durable.
Management sustains high returns with modest capital requirements and returns substantial cash through dividends and net buybacks. Leverage is manageable, though repurchases at elevated valuations deserve scrutiny.
Owner-earnings inputs
| Owner earnings (TTM) | 2.15B |
| Owner-earnings yield | 2.9% |
| Free-cash-flow yield | 5.1% |
| Growth used (normalized) | 6.0% |
| Market-implied growth (reverse DCF) | 15.2% |
| Terminal growth | 3.0% |
| Discount rate (hurdle) | 9.0% |
Projected owner earnings
| Yr | Owner earnings | Growth | PV |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2.28B | 6.0% | 2.09B |
| 2 | 2.41B | 5.8% | 2.03B |
| 3 | 2.54B | 5.6% | 1.96B |
| 4 | 2.68B | 5.4% | 1.90B |
| 5 | 2.82B | 5.1% | 1.83B |
| 6 | 2.95B | 4.9% | 1.76B |
| 7 | 3.09B | 4.7% | 1.69B |
| 8 | 3.23B | 4.5% | 1.62B |
| 9 | 3.37B | 4.3% | 1.55B |
| 10 | 3.51B | 4.1% | 1.48B |
| 11 | 3.64B | 3.9% | 1.41B |
| 12 | 3.78B | 3.6% | 1.34B |
| 13 | 3.91B | 3.4% | 1.27B |
| 14 | 4.03B | 3.2% | 1.21B |
| 15 | 4.15B | 3.0% | 1.14B |
Key risks
- Private-label competition and weakening brand pricing power
- Currency and political exposure across emerging markets
- Commodity inflation or leverage constraining capital allocation
Catalysts
- Premiumization and market-share gains in oral care
- Margin expansion from productivity and easing input costs
Recent news
score · 8 articles
- Oil gains as US revokes license for Iranian sales after tanker attacks
- Meet the Dividend King Stock That's Up 20% in 2026. Here's Why It Can Continue Outperforming the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 in the Second Half.
- Eight Japanese ships depart Hormuz via passage near Iran
- Three sons of Khamenei attend funeral as successor remains out of public view
- Millions mourn Khamenei as Trump says Iran talks to resume soon
- Procter & Gamble vs Colgate-Palmolive: Two Consumer Giants, Two Strategies, One Invests, Other Optimizes
- Iran holds state funeral for Khamenei as successor stays out of public view
- Meet the Dividend King With a 64-Year Streak That Wall Street Is Sleeping On
⚠ maintenance capex ≈ min(capex, D&A), capped at FCF · Price pays for ~15%/yr owner-earnings growth over 15y (reverse DCF); model credits 6%. · Rich vs our conservative value, but a quality business is not a short — stance is WAIT for a better price, not sell.