No-Moat Church & Dwight Lacks Immunity to Heightened Macro and Competitive Angst

We’ve long held that no-moat Church & Dwight lacks the scale, resources, and negotiating prowess of its larger brethren. We see this as an unenviable position, particularly when juxtaposed with persistent macro and competitive pressures combined with unrelenting cost headwinds. Although Church has emphasized 40% of its mix skews toward value offerings, we're skeptical this alone will insulate it over the longer term. Rather, we posit Church’s category mix makes the firm susceptible to consumers trading down or out if their financial position warrants. Beyond the top line, we surmise material profit expansion could be delayed by intensifying competition (from well-resourced peers and lower-priced private-label offerings) if promotional spending steps up from relatively dormant levels of the past few years. As a smaller operator with less-entrenched retail relationships, we think this could put Church in the crosshairs, capping margins. Further, while inflationary headwinds in aggregate have died down, pockets of cost pressures persist and could put added pressure on its margin trajectory.