(Feb 12): Unilever plc posted better-than-expected sales at the end of last year, boosted by premium beauty and home care products in the consumer group’s key markets including the US and India.
The maker of Dove soap said on Thursday underlying fourth-quarter sales rose 4.2%, above the 4% analysts anticipated. It also announced a EUR1.5 billion (US$1.8 billion or $2.3 billion) share buy-back starting in the second quarter.
The results are the first after Unilever spun off its ice-cream business — which included Ben & Jerry’s — and come as chief executive officer Fernando Fernandez nears his first full year at the helm. Extending a turnaround plan begun by his predecessor, Fernandez is streamlining the sprawling group by selling brands that don’t scale internationally, and focusing on boosting the multinational’s most successful products.
Investors have welcomed that strategy, with shares of Unilever up 9.5% this year through Wednesday’s close.
Unilever expects sales growth this fiscal year to be “at the bottom end” of its 4% to 6% multi-year target range, in line with analysts’ expectations. It was 3.5% in 2025, which was also towards the lower end of its target.
Analysts are divided over whether Unilever can continue its current positive momentum. Barclays’ analysts led by Warren Ackerman said in a report that growth in emerging markets — India, Indonesia, Brazil and China — could happen at the same time. But Deutsche Bank analyst Tom Sykes, who recently cut his recommendation on Unilever’s shares to “hold”, said the company is at an “all-time high” compared to peers and won’t grow much more.
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Unilever’s former CEO Hein Schumacher was pushed out in March last year and replaced with Fernandez, then the company’s chief financial officer, as the board sought a faster revamp.
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