P&G Products Used Around the World and Stock Prices

The Scale of P&G

Since P&G is a company whose commercials air frequently in Japan, I’m sure many of you are familiar with it.When we were kids, we used to memorize commercial catchphrases and sing them with our friends, didn’t we? (laughs) There were a few funny P&G commercials, so we used to sing those a lot too. As an adult, I never realized it was such a huge company—I actually thought it was a Japanese company. (laughs) I decided to look into the scale of

P&G.

(Source: Rakuten Securities)

Believe it or not, they sell their products in 180 countries and regions. And their market capitalization is $245.2 billion! Even if you simply assume an exchange rate of 100 yen to the dollar, that’s about 24 trillion yen (￣▽￣;) Japan’s Kao had a market cap of about 4 trillion yen, so even by a rough calculation, P&G’s is about six times larger.I used to think Japanese companies were huge, but ever since I started researching U.S. stocks, I’ve been blown away by the difference in scale…　

P&G Products

So, speaking of P&G products, I decided to look into what they actually offer. First up are the products from their home market, the U.S.

The list includes names familiar even in Japan: Pampers—the gold standard for baby diapers—laundry detergent Ariel, skincare brand SK-II, razors from Gillette and Braun, and toothbrushes from Oral-B. And every single one of these brands is associated with high quality.Given that they’ve brought so many products to market and gained such widespread acceptance, their market capitalization and corporate value seem entirely justified.

Incidentally, the product that resonated with me the most was the laundry detergent Gain. I imagine few people are familiar with it, aren’t they? Since I’m from Okinawa, American-made snacks, detergents, and food items were always naturally present in my home from a young age.Products that you’d find in specialty shops on the mainland were stocked in the small stores and supermarkets run by my grandmother.

And the laundry detergent my mother used was Gain. I couldn’t get enough of that unique scent—I loved the way the towels smelled after they were washed. What would I do if it turned out to be a product full of chemicals? (laughs) Now

, let’s take a look at the Japanese versions of these products.

Just like the U.S. list, it includes Pampers, Ariel, and SK-II, but it also features brands like Bold and Lenor. Since the packaging is Japanese, it’s intuitively easy to recognize, right? And isn’t there at least one product on the list that you always have at home or use all the time?

In our household, Pampers, Ariel, Joy, Pantene, and Oral-B are the products we use heavily. We buy them whenever we run out. In other words, they’re practically daily necessities

. I think that’s P&G’s real strength. These are all products that I feel we’ll likely keep using almost without fail, regardless of whether our

pay goes up or down.If I’m short on money, I can cut back a bit on food expenses, but I couldn’t stop using Pampers and switch to cloth diapers. I could stop using Oral-B and go back to a regular toothbrush, but I don’t have the confidence to stop using Ariel and do all my laundry with just baking soda.

I think P&G’s strength as a company lies in the fact that it has more products that are daily necessities rather than luxury items.

Current Stock Price

Here is P&G’s current stock price.

(Source: Rakuten Securities)

It’s $97.44 per share. (As of February 6) It fell to a low of $86.88 on December 24 of last year, but has since rebounded. It’s currently at its highest level in the past 10 years.

Dividend Yield

As shown in the chart above, the dividend yield is currently 2.94%. A dividend of $2.86 is paid per share.

Since EPS for 2018 was $3.67, earnings per share are more than sufficient to cover the dividend.

(Source: Morningstar) While the

dividend payout ratio is on the high side at 73.46%, the company still has ample free cash flow, and since earnings per share exceed the dividend, I believe it will be able to sustain its dividend payments.

(Source: Morningstar) Personally

, this is one of the companies I’d like to actively buy into during a market downturn.