Procter & Gamble lowers top end of forecast

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Procter & Gamble Co <PG.N> lowered the high end of its profit forecast for the year, as it does what it can to trim costs and increases some prices to offset rising costs for materials.

Earnings rose, but fell short of Wall Street's expectations in the latest quarter. P&G shares fell in premarket trading.

P&G earned $2.87 billion, or 96 cents per share, in the third quarter ended in March from $2.59 billion, or 83 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts on average expected 97 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Sales rose 5 percent to $20.23 billion.

P&G said it now expected fiscal-year core earnings, which exclude some items, of $3.91 to $3.96 per share. The high end of that forecast previously was $4.01.

The company now expects sales to increase 4 percent to 5 percent, compared with a January forecast of 3 percent to 5 percent growth.

(Reporting by Jessica Wohl; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)