Proctor & Gamble-No Rumors Here

Proctor & Gamble (PG) announced that they would be releasing Q4 results on Aug 5. Q4is always critical just in case there is any house keeping and or realignment of the lines of battle in the financial sense. In the same week that the market is rife with talk about rumour mongering and how the SEC will protect us against this scourge P&G makes the very definitive statement that:

“The company continues to expect sales growth for the quarter of 8 percent to 10 percent, organic sales growth in line with previous guidance and diluted earnings per share of $0.76 to $0.78.”

That’s all she wrote folks. It’s truly nice that P&G has such a firm grip on its financial affairs. But when is disclosure disclosure and when is a rumour a rumour. The idea of an earnings announcement is that the bean counters have finished their work and the board which represents the shareholders (large and small) has reviewed the statements and signed off. So is this faux disclosure so as to prevent rumour? Has the board reviewed the statements and signed off on the numbers three weeks before the scheduled disclosure date?

When does guidance morph into disclosure? A two cent EPS range for the entire year for a company this size is tantamount to a direct hit.