Nestlé shrugged off any lingering concerns over the impact of its Maggi noodles health scare in India by beating second-quarter revenue predictions and forecasting further sales growth.
Nestlé posted organic revenue growth of 4.5% to CHF42.8bn in the six months to 30 June, thanks to sales growth of 4.6% in the second quarter - well ahead of consensus expectations of a 4% increase. Total sales were hit by foreign exchange (-5.8%), so Nestlé’s real internal growth was a more modest 1.7%. Nevertheless, shares surged 3.7% by lunchtime on Thursday to CHF74.90.
Bernstein analyst Andrew Wood welcomed the “quite pleasing results, led by better-than-expected organic top-line growth”. He added: “Despite investor worries about China babyfood, Maggi noodles in India and US frozen/prepared foods, Q2 demonstrated the broad-based strength of the company.” Analysts at Liberum Capital noted Nestlé’s developed markets remained resilient, with US frozen food and ice cream showing signs of improvement. “Nestlé shares remain an attractive defensive haven, albeit with more limited near-term upside,” the broker surmised.
Elsewhere, Coca-Cola HBC (CCH) shares surged by 8.2% on Thursday morning to 1,431p after it issued its first-half numbers. The FTSE 100 Coke bottler said volumes increased by 3.8% in the six months to 2 July. The volume growth (which drops to 1.3% excluding the 2.5% contribution from the four extra selling days in Q1) was driven by developing markets, which saw volume growth of 6.2% while developed markets were flat.
Shore Capital upgraded the stock from sell to hold, noting: “It would seem that volume momentum is returning to the business, which, along with the benefit of low input costs, should enable improving results.”
Tesco’s (TSCO) shares were hit by the news that bids for its data arm Dunnhumby are likely to be substantially lower than the previously mooted £2bn price tag. The expectation that its Clubcard data business will raise just £700m sent shares 2.6% lower on Wednesday to 204.2p.
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