EUROPE MARKETS: Mixed Corporate Results From Nestle And Unilever Keep European Stocks To A Tight Range
October 17 2019 - 5:45AM
Dow Jones News
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
A mixed set of results from European giants including Nestle and
Unilever kept stocks within a tight range on Thursday.
Nestle (NESN.EB) slipped 0.9% after reporting 3.7% organic sales
growth over nine months and announcing it would repurchase 20
billion francs of new shares through 2022. "On 22x forward earnings
Nestle probably needs to upside surprise: with topline inline and
the new buyback widely expected today's results are solid but
probably not enough to drive the shares near term," said Morgan
Stanley in a research note.
Unilever (ULVR.LN) shares rose 2% as the Anglo-Dutch household
products group reported 2.9% underlying sales growth in the third
quarter
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/unilever-underlying-sales-rise-29-2019-10-17),
and said sales by that metric will be at the lower half of its 3%
to 5% range for the full year.
"While this is no more than an in-line result, volumes are ahead
of our expectations and positive pricing compares favorably to
NESN's result this morning, albeit flattered by the
re-consolidation of a proportion of Argentina inflation," said
analysts at Jefferies.
Pernod Ricard (RI.FR) shares fell 2.9% as the French beverages
group said fiscal first quarter sales grew a slower than forecast
1.3%.
Telecom equipment maker Ericsson (ERIC-B.SK) shot up nearly 7%
as the company lifted its sales and margin targets. See: Ericsson
lifts sales, margin targets as operators continue 5G spending spree
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ericsson-lifts-sales-margin-targets-as-operators-continue-5g-spending-spree-2019-10-17-41035236)
The major stock market indexes didn't move much, with the Stoxx
Europe 600 up 0.17% to 394.12.
The German DAX rose 0.24% to 12700.14, the French CAC 40 added
0.08% to 5701.38 and the U.K. FTSE 100 increased 0.35% to
7193.02.
The British pound drifted lower as the Northern Irish political
party the DUP said it rejected a proposed Brexit deal "as things
stand."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 17, 2019 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)
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