Unilever Hikes Dividend as Shares Jump on Earnings

Unilever has unveiled its first dividend increase since 2020 as profit and turnover increases

Alliance News 25 July, 2024 | 11:13AM
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dove soap on shelf in shop

Unilever (ULVR) on Thursday said turnover and profit both increased in its latest half year, and declared a higher quarterly dividend for the first time since 2020.

The London-based consumer goods giant said that for the first six months of 2024, net profit rose 3.5% to €4.02 billion (£3.3 billion) from €3.88 billion the year before.

Basic earnings per share rose to €1.48 from €1.41, while diluted EPS rose to €1.47 from €1.40.

Unilever's turnover rose 2.3% to €31.12 billion from €30.43 billion, meanwhile. Americas turnover rose 4.6% to €11.46 billion, while Europe turnover increased 3.8% to €6.28 billion.

Unilever, whose brands include Dove, Domestos and Marmite, said turnover for its personal care segment increased 0.6% to €6.95 billion, while Nutrition rose 1.3% to €6.69 billion.

Beauty and wellbeing turnover jumped 5.1% to €6.54 billion; home care increased 2.0% to €6.33 billion; and turnover for ice cream, which Unilever announced plans to spin off in mid-March, increased 2.8% to €4.61 billion.

Unilever currently owns five of the 10 top-selling global ice cream brands including Wall's, Magnum and Ben & Jerry's. It said in March that the separation will assist in the implementation of its growth action plan, a comprehensive productivity programme it expects to deliver around €800 million in cost savings over the next three years.

Unilever said that due to its strong interim performance, it has increased the second-quarter interim dividend by 3.0% to 43.96 euro cents per share from 43 cents the prior year.

This, Unilever said, marks its first dividend increase since the fourth quarter of 2020.

"We are focused on driving high-quality sales growth and gross margin expansion, led by our power brands," said chief executive officer Hein Schumacher. "Over the first half, we made progress on those ambitions [...] Strong gross margin progression fuelled increased investment behind our innovations, and resulted in a step-up of our profitability.

"We continue to embed the growth action plan, doing fewer things, better and with greater impact. The implementation of a comprehensive productivity programme and the separation of ice cream are key to delivering on that commitment and we are progressing at pace."

Looking ahead, Unilever continues to expect between 3% and 5% underlying sales growth for the full year, with most growth drive by volume. It also anticipates an underlying operating margin of "at least 18%, with increasing investment behind our brands".

"There is much to do, but we remain focused on transforming Unilever into a consistently higher performing business," CEO Schumacher commented.

Shares in Unilever were trading 5.4% higher at £46.34 in London on Thursday morning.

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