Will 2018 Be Procter & Gamble's Best Year Yet?

It's a safe bet that Procter & Gamble's (NYSE: PG) management team is happy to close the books on 2017. Sales have been sluggish, competition was fierce, and the company narrowly beat back an activist shareholder challenge that would have forced a major strategic shakeup.

Weak global demand trends suggest 2018 will be another disappointing year for the business. However, there are also good reasons for investors to expect better news from P&G. Let's consider the prospects for a much improved 2018 for the consumer-products titan.

The main challenge facing P&G today is a stubbornly depressed industry. In fact, executives described a "decelerating global market" in their first quarterly report of fiscal 2018. That drag helped push organic sales growth down to 1% from an already weak 2% in the prior quarter.

Source: Fool.com