BRUSHED ASIDE!

Meh-performing P&G disses Peltz

Procter & Gamble brass on Thursday soundly rejected the idea that they needed help from an activist investor.

Chief Executive David Taylor, whose company’s stock was the 323rd best performer in the S&P 500 index last year, sounded very comfortable on a slow train away from mediocre. Meanwhile, its products, from toothpastes to detergents to razor blades, are losing market share.

P&G, whose stable of well-known brands includes Crest, Tide, Pampers and Gillette, reported Thursday that organic sales grew just 2 percent in its fiscal year ended June 30

Taylor projected more middling results for the upcoming fiscal year — with sales expected to grow in the 2 percent to 3 percent range.

Taylor is under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners, which is pressing the consumer goods giant to shake things up to get growth above 3.9 percent — a level P&G rivals have been cruising at.

But Taylor thinks he has the plan.

“There’s nothing incremental [that Peltz] has offered,” Taylor told an interviewer from CNBC. “I want to prevent anything from derailing the work we’re doing.”

Taylor became CEO in 2015, when P&G shares were the 369th-best performer in the S&P.

So far in 2017, P&G sits as the 300th-best performer in the index.

While P&G’s organic sales in beauty grew 5 percent, grooming and health care each saw declines of 1 percent. Gillette, which makes shaving products, was hit especially hard due to lower competitor prices in the US — especially from Harry’s and the Dollar Shave Club.

P&G shares are up 7.9 percent this year — including a 1.6 percent gain on Thursday, to $90.68. Meanwhile, rivals Clorox and Colgate-Palmolive are each up more that 11 percent this year.

Trian Partners an- nounced a $3.3 billion stake in P&G earlier this month. The $12.7 billion hedge fund wants the company to cut bureaucracy and regain market share it lost to peers and smaller, more nimble players.

“The fact that [Peltz] has good advice doesn’t mean we just add him to the board,” Taylor told CNBC.