JPMorgan double upgrades Unilever to ‘overweight’

JPMorgan Cazenove double-upgraded Unilever on Thursday to ‘overweight’ from ‘underweight’ and hiked the price target to 5,100p from 3,600p after several years of caution on the equity story.

"Against our February 22 blueprint, changes over the past 12 months have soothed our concerns as the company is addressing; 1) cultural change and corporate governance, 2) market share underperformance through increased investments and execution focus, 3) portfolio transformation with disposals," the bank said.

"While these changes should impact over time, our analysis of volume levels shed light on volumes recovery from 2019 base in Europe/Nutrition/ Ice cream while our worries of price roll over have not materialised."

JPM said this feeds a stronger FY24 both in quantum - it is around 3% ahead of FY24 consensus earnings per share - and in quality.

"This should give credence Unilever is on the path to turnaround and contribute to the stock re-rating along with positive earnings revision."

JPM lifted its 24/25 EPS estimates by 2.5%/6% and placed the shares on ‘positive catalyst watch’ on the back of strong second-quarter like-for-like sales and first-half margins.

At 1110 BST, the shares were up 1.3% at 4,329.44p.