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13 May 2021
Unilever PLC : Defensive & not expensive - Buy

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Unilever PLC : Defensive & not expensive - Buy
Unilever PLC (ULVR:LON) | 4,544 0 0.0% | Mkt Cap: 111,426m
- Published:
13 May 2021 -
Author:
Alicia Forry, CFA -
Pages:
6 -
Unilever is on track to deliver the FY guidance of 3-5% organic sales growth and a slight increase in operating margin. If share gains continue at the Q1 rate then the upper end of FY guidance is achievable. Management was upbeat regarding the outlook, even for difficult markets like India.
Unilever has been more negatively affected by the COVID crisis than some of its HPC peers, though sales still grew 2% in FY20. As markets re-open the company should see a boost to its personal care, out of home ice cream and food service businesses, all of which have been negatively affected by the crisis.
We are encouraged by the various portfolio actions being taken by management. The Tea business will be separated later this year. The smaller personal care and beauty brands (with sales of €600m) are being grouped into a new unit called Elidia Beauty, and options are being explored for them. Unilever is expanding further into health & wellness categories, which we view as being highly complementary to the existing business. With the single share structure, Unilever now has greater flexibility to pursue a wider range of deals, should it wish to.
Unilever is extremely committed to sustainability and ESG matters. At the recent AGM, a majority of shareholders voted in favour of the company’s proposed climate transition plan; Unilever is one of only a few large companies that have invited shareholders to vote on climate targets.
In light of the positive momentum in the business, which could lead to upgrades, we raise our TP. We apply a FY21E PE of 21.8x which lifts our TP to 4,900p. This is still a significant discount to major global HPC peers which are trading on 23-30x PE multiples.