Unilever Beats Earnings; Shares Down On Sluggish Growth

Unilever N.V. (UN) is a British-Dutch multinational corporation and its shares listed on the NYSE are known as New York Shares. This fast-moving consumer giant commands market-leading positions in savory, dressings, tea, ice cream, deodorants and mass skin care product categories, and its products are sold in more than 180 countries.

However, much like the rest of the consumer staple companies, Unilever has been posting dismal results since 2013 due to continued soft growth in the emerging and developed markets. The company’s operations were also hurt by macro-economic headwinds like unfavorable currency and high commodity cost inflation. Due to this, investors are eagerly awaiting Unilever’s earnings report.

This is especially true given the recent earnings estimate revisions for Unilever as the consensus estimate has been going sharply lower.

Currently, Unilever has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), but that could definitely change following Unilever’s full year 2014 earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings:  Unilever beats on annual earnings. Our consensus called for core EPS of $1.90, and the company reported core EPS of Euro 1.61 (*$2.14 per share).

Revenue: Annual revenues beat. Unilever posted revenues of Euro 48.4 billion (*$64.4 billion), compared to our consensus estimate of $57.7 billion.

Key Stats to Note: Organic sales growth in 2014 went up 2.9%, but revenues declined 2.7% in local currency owing to significant economic headwinds and weak markets.

Stock Price: Shares were down almost 2.9% in the pre-market trading following the release.

*1Euro = $1.32925 at the end of the year Dec 31, 2014.

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