It's been a good week for Unilever PLC (LON:ULVR) shareholders, because the company has just released its latest annual results, and the shares gained 3.6% to UK£40.06. The result was positive overall - although revenues of €60b were in line with what the analysts predicted, Unilever surprised by delivering a statutory profit of €2.56 per share, modestly greater than expected. The analysts typically update their forecasts at each earnings report, and we can judge from their estimates whether their view of the company has changed or if there are any new concerns to be aware of. We've gathered the most recent statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their earnings models, following these results.

View our latest analysis for Unilever

Following the latest results, Unilever's 20 analysts are now forecasting revenues of €61.0b in 2024. This would be a reasonable 2.3% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. Statutory per share are forecast to be €2.58, approximately in line with the last 12 months. In the lead-up to this report, the analysts had been modelling revenues of €61.4b and earnings per share (EPS) of €2.55 in 2024. The consensus analysts don't seem to have seen anything in these results that would have changed their view on the business, given there's been no major change to their estimates.

It will come as no surprise then, to learn that the consensus price target is largely unchanged at UK£41.40. It could also be instructive to look at the range of analyst estimates, to evaluate how different the outlier opinions are from the mean. Currently, the most bullish analyst values Unilever at UK£50.02 per share, while the most bearish prices it at UK£34.02. These price targets show that analysts do have some differing views on the business, but the estimates do not vary enough to suggest to us that some are betting on wild success or utter failure.

These estimates are interesting, but it can be useful to paint some more broad strokes when seeing how forecasts compare, both to the Unilever's past performance and to peers in the same industry. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Unilever's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2024 expected to display 2.3% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 4.1% over the past five years. By way of comparison, the other companies in this industry with analyst coverage are forecast to grow their revenue at 3.6% per year. Factoring in the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Unilever is also expected to grow slower than other industry participants.

The Bottom Line

The most important thing to take away is that there's been no major change in sentiment, with the analysts reconfirming that the business is performing in line with their previous earnings per share estimates. Fortunately, the analysts also reconfirmed their revenue estimates, suggesting that it's tracking in line with expectations. Although our data does suggest that Unilever's revenue is expected to perform worse than the wider industry. There was no real change to the consensus price target, suggesting that the intrinsic value of the business has not undergone any major changes with the latest estimates.

With that said, the long-term trajectory of the company's earnings is a lot more important than next year. We have estimates - from multiple Unilever analysts - going out to 2026, and you can see them free on our platform here.

It is also worth noting that we have found 2 warning signs for Unilever that you need to take into consideration.

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