Unilever share price surges as sales growth beats forecast

Shares in Unilever (LON:ULVR) have climbed higher in London in today’s session as the company reported better-than-expected sales growth in the first quarter of the year. The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant, however, disclosed a fall in turnover during the reported period.

As of 08:48 BST, the Unilever share price had added 2.47 percent to 4,486.50p, outperforming the benchmark FTSE 100 index which has slipped into the red and is currently 0.38 percent worse off at 7,443.16 points The group’s shares have added more than 12 percent to their value over the past year, as compared with a near two-percent gain in the Footsie.

Results boost Unilever share price

Unilever’s shares have been in demand as the company announced in a statement this morning that its underlying sales had grown 3.1 percent in the first three months of the year,  with 1.2 percent from volume and 1.9 percent from price. Reuters reported in its coverage of the news that analysts on average were expecting a 2.8-percent rise, according to a company-supplied consensus forecast.

The group’s turnover meanwhile dipped 1.6 percent during the reported period, driven by the disposal of the consumer goods giant’s spreads business. The company meanwhile lifted its payout to shareholders by six percent to €0.4104 per share.

“We have delivered a solid start that keeps us on track for our full year expectations. Growth was led by emerging markets and was balanced between volume and price,” Unilever’s chief executive Alan Jope commented in the statement, adding that for the full year, the Anglo-Dutch group continues to expect underlying sales growth to be in the lower half of its multi-year range of between three and five percent.

Analysts on Anglo-Dutch company

Liberum Capital reaffirmed its ‘buy’ rating on Unilever today, without specifying a valuation on the shares. According to MarketBeat, the blue-chip group currently has a consensus ‘hold’ rating and an average price target of 4,234.09p.