colgatepalmolive cos stock rose 14 in premarket trade friday after the consumer goods company posted betterthanexpected firstquarter earnings bolstered by higher pricing including a 105 increase in north america consumer goods companies have been demonstrating their pricing power this earnings seasonprocter  gamble copg and kimberlyclark corp kmb also raised prices by a doubledigit amount as did pepsico inc pep nestlé and unilever  with little impact on volumes new yorkbased colgate cl posted net income of 372 million or 45 cents a share for the quarter down from 559 million or 66 cents a share in the yearearlier period adjusted pershare earnings came to 73 cents ahead of the 70 cent factset consensus sales rose 85 to 4770 billion from 4399 billion and were also ahead of the 4587 billion factset consensus gross profit margin fell 160 basis points to 569 due to the impact of private label sales resulting from the acquisitions of pet food businesses the company said but it retained its leadership in toothpaste with a global market share of 402 in the year to date and its leadership in manual toothbrushes of 306 yeartodate despite continued pressure from raw and packaging material costs during the quarter gross profit margin improved sequentially versus fourth quarter 2022 which helped fund a 14 increase in advertising in support of our pricing and robust innovation across all categories chief executive noel wallace said in a statement we expect to drive further gross margin improvement in the balance of the year through continued strong pricing and the benefits from fundingthegrowth and other productivity initiatives see also kimberlyclarks stock jumps after earnings and promise of big news in the poop category colgate is now expecting fullyear sales growth of 3 to 6 and for doubledigit growth in eps the factset consensus implies about 5 growth in sales and 5 growth in eps by region sales rose 35 in north america while volumes fell 65 in europe sales were down 05 as it raised prices by 8 and volumes fell 35 in latin america the company raised prices by 18 while sales rose 125 and volumes fell 35 the stock has fallen 11 in the year to date while the sp 500 has gained 8 this content was created by marketwatch which is operated by dow jones  co marketwatch is published independently from dow jones newswires and the wall street journal