One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$107.77 our estimate vs market $93.10
Wall Street consensus: $98.15 (-8.9% lower than our fair-value estimate)
14% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Colgate-Palmolive Company
CL · NYQ · Consumer Defensive · Household & Personal Products
Current price
$93.10
52-week range
$74.55 - $99.33
Market cap
$74.22B
Balance sheet
Distressed
15.85x Strong cushion
Net debt $6.40B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 3.3% last year.
- Reward Returns 267.4% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Stock trades 21.9% above its 5-year average P/E.
What this company does
Colgate-Palmolive Company
Colgate-Palmolive makes everyday essentials you probably have at home, like Colgate toothpaste, Irish Spring soap, and Hill's pet food. The company earns its money selling these necessary items all over the world, which people tend to buy over and over again, even when they are cutting back on other spending. This consistent purchasing by customers provides the business with a relatively stable and predictable source of income.
How the company got here
Colgate-Palmolive started in 1806 when William Colgate opened a small soap and candle business in New York City. The company first became known for selling toothpaste in a jar in 1873 and then in a collapsible tube in 1896. A major turning point was in 1928, when it merged with the Palmolive-Peet company, which made the world's best-selling Palmolive soap. Another key move was acquiring Hill's Pet Nutrition in 1976, which expanded the company beyond personal and home products. Over many decades, it grew by expanding into more than 200 countries and acquiring other well-known brands like Mennen, Tom's of Maine, and EltaMD.
What it actually does
Colgate-Palmolive is a global company that makes and sells a wide variety of products you likely have in your home right now. Most people know them for their famous Colgate toothpaste and Palmolive dish soap. They also make personal care items like Irish Spring soap, Speed Stick deodorant, and Softsoap hand soap. Beyond things for people, the company is also a major player in pet food through its Hill's Pet Nutrition brand, which offers science-backed food for cats and dogs.
Oral, Personal and Home Care
This is the company's largest business segment, making up more than three-quarters of its sales. It includes the products the company is most famous for, such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, and mouthwash under the Colgate brand. This segment also produces personal items like bar soaps, liquid soaps, shampoos, and deodorants with brands like Palmolive, Protex, and Irish Spring. For the home, it sells cleaning products you'd recognize, such as Ajax, Fabuloso, and Murphy Oil Soap. These products are sold to everyday shoppers through a wide range of stores, from big retailers to small local shops and online.
Pet Nutrition
This segment is a smaller but important and growing part of the company, representing just under a quarter of its total revenue. It operates under the Hill's Pet Nutrition brand, which focuses on premium, science-based food for dogs and cats. This business is different because its products are primarily sold through veterinarians, specialty pet stores, and online retailers rather than typical grocery stores. Hill's offers two main types of food: 'Science Diet' for the everyday nutritional needs of healthy pets and 'Prescription Diet,' which provides therapeutic nutrition to help manage specific health conditions in pets.
What management is betting on now
The company's current strategy focuses on selling more premium products, especially in its core oral care business, like advanced whitening or sensitivity toothpastes. Management is also heavily investing in growing its Hill's Pet Nutrition business, seeing it as a major source of future growth and even acquiring new manufacturing plants to keep up with demand. They are also focused on expanding their sales online and using data and analytics (the process of examining data to find trends and draw conclusions) to make their advertising more effective. A key part of their plan is a 'funding-the-growth' model, where they find cost savings in their supply chain (the entire process of making and selling goods) to reinvest in innovation and marketing.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$1.03B
FY2024 Q4
$1.08B
FY2025 Q1
$476.00M
FY2025 Q2
$776.00M
FY2025 Q3
$1.11B
FY2025 Q4
$1.28B
FY2026 Q1
$609.00M
FY2026 Q2
$867.00M
Revenue
$5.36B
Net income
$693.00M
Diluted EPS
0.86
Operating cash flow
$995.00M
Free cash flow
$867.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.32B
Net income
$646.00M
Diluted EPS
0.80
Operating cash flow
$747.00M
Free cash flow
$609.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.23B
Net income
$-36.00M
Diluted EPS
-0.04
Operating cash flow
$1.45B
Free cash flow
$1.28B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.13B
Net income
$735.00M
Diluted EPS
0.91
Operating cash flow
$1.26B
Free cash flow
$1.11B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.11B
Net income
$743.00M
Diluted EPS
0.91
Operating cash flow
$884.00M
Free cash flow
$776.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.91B
Net income
$690.00M
Diluted EPS
0.85
Operating cash flow
$600.00M
Free cash flow
$476.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.95B
Net income
$738.00M
Diluted EPS
0.89
Operating cash flow
$1.27B
Free cash flow
$1.08B
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$5.03B
Net income
$737.00M
Diluted EPS
0.90
Operating cash flow
$1.17B
Free cash flow
$1.03B
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $107.77 vs current price $93.10
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $98.15 (-8.9% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $107.77 a share — about 15.8% away from today's price of $93.10, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $6.4B. Interest coverage 15.9x.
Net debt
$6.40B
Interest coverage
15.85x
Colgate-Palmolive Company's profit covers its interest bill about 15.9 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
CL
BASELINE
Colgate-Palmolive Company
Total debt $7.86B Interest coverage 15.85x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $38.93B Interest coverage 22.52x +42% vs CL Carries about 1.4x more debt cushion than CL.
Total debt $6.54B Interest coverage 9.18x -42% vs CL Carries about 1.7x less debt cushion than CL.
Total debt $35.89B Interest coverage 9.22x -42% vs CL Carries about 1.7x less debt cushion than CL.
Total debt $2.43B Interest coverage 11.32x -29% vs CL Carries about 1.4x less debt cushion than CL.
Total debt $13.68B Interest coverage 8.10x -49% vs CL Carries about 2.0x less debt cushion than CL.
What you should know
The case for and against CL
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 3.3% last year.
-
Returns 267.4% on equity, ahead of 83% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 21.9% above its 5-year average P/E.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
37.09x
Forward P/E
22.78x
P/B
314.53x
P/S
3.53x
EV/EBITDA
16.25x
PEG ratio
1.71x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
60.4%
Operating margin
21.0%
Net margin
9.7%
ROE
267.4%
ROA
15.8%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
13.88x
Current ratio
1.03x
Quick ratio
0.56x
Total debt
$7.86B
Total cash
$1.45B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$21.05B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
4.0%
EPS TTM
2.51
EPS 5Y CAGR
7.3%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$4.46B
Free CF TTM
$3.63B
FCF margin
17.3%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.2%
Payout ratio
82.3%
Last ex-div date
2026-10-20