By Matt Grossman

Colgate-Palmolive Co. on Friday logged a first-quarter profit and higher sales year over year as the company built on revenue gains it logged in last year's first quarter during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The New York City-based consumer-products company posted earnings of 80 cents a share, down from 83 cents a share a year earlier. Net income attributable to the company was $681 million, down from $715 million one year earlier.

After stripping out one-time items, Colgate's adjusted earnings were also 80 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast an adjusted profit of 79 cents a share.

Sales grew to $4.34 billion, from $4.1 billion in last year's first quarter. Analysts were expecting revenue of $4.27 billion.

North American sales fell by 0.5%, but sales grew by single-digit percentages in Latin America and Europe and by double-digit percentages in the Asia-Pacific region and in Africa and Eurasia.

Chairman and Chief Executive Noel Wallace noted that the company's 6% overall sales growth came despite a difficult comparison to intensive consumer stocking-up behavior during the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Looking ahead, Colgate said it expects net sales to grow by 4% to 7% year over year in 2021, and that its adjusted profit would increase by a percentage in the middle- to high-single digits on a per-share basis.

Write to Matt Grossman at matt.grossman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-30-21 0725ET