Investing.com -- Unilever on Wednesday reported third-quarter underlying sales growth of 5.2%, surpassing analyst expectations of 4.8%, as the consumer goods company delivered strong volume growth across its portfolio.
However, the company's shares fell around 2% on softness in developed markets.
The company posted turnover of €13.3 billion for the quarter, up 6.7% from the prior-year period. Volume growth reached 2.9% with price increases of 2.3% implemented to offset higher commodity costs. Unilever's Power Brands led the performance with 5.8% underlying sales growth and 3.3% volume growth.
Following the strong nine-month performance, Unilever upgraded its full-year outlook, now expecting at least 3% underlying volume growth for 2026 and underlying sales growth of around 5% in the second half.
"We have delivered another quarter of competitive growth, led by continued strong volume delivery and a step up in price to offset the impact of higher commodity costs," said Chief Executive Officer Fernando Fernandez. "This progress gives us confidence that we will now deliver at least 3% volume growth for the full year."
The Home Care, Personal Care and Beauty & Wellbeing divisions showed broad-based strength, with Home Care posting 9.1% underlying sales growth and turnover of €3.1 billion, up 7.5% YoY. Personal Care delivered 6.3% underlying sales growth with turnover of €3.6 billion, up 9.7%, while Beauty & Wellbeing achieved 5.7% underlying sales growth and turnover of €3.5 billion, up 9.5%.
Foods posted minimal growth at 0.1% underlying sales growth with flat turnover of €3.1 billion.
"Performance was led by HPC, with Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care and Home Care all delivering strong volume-led growth," Unilever said.
Regionally, emerging markets drove momentum, led by strong growth in India, Latin America and South East Asia. Performance in developed markets was weaker, however, reflecting tougher comparisons with a year earlier and a softer showing in the Foods business.
JPMorgan analysts said the sales beat could nudge consensus forecasts modestly higher, but weaker developed-market trends may weigh on investor sentiment.
Unilever maintained its full-year guidance for underlying sales growth within its 4% to 6% range and expects modest improvement in underlying operating margin versus 20.0% in 2025. The company said currency movements are expected to reduce full-year turnover by about 2% and underlying operating margin by around 30 basis points.
Jefferies analyst David Hayes thought the report would push the shares higher after the market open. "While Food continues to struggle, the HPC business continues to impress. This is significantly skewed to Emerging markets and there are holes in Wellbeing (U.S. down HSD) but the overall delivery today should support bulls."
Original Article
Unilever tops Q3 sales forecasts but shares dip on developed markets softness
Telenor shares rise as Q3 core profit beats forecasts, buyback to speed up
