Unilever PLC (ULVR.L) — Company Research
Last Updated: 6 June 2026
Unilever PLC is one of the world's largest fast-moving consumer goods companies, owning household names such as Dove, Vaseline, Hellmann's, Knorr, Persil and Sunsilk and selling to billions of consumers across more than 190 countries. The group is in the middle of a sweeping portfolio transformation: it demerged its Ice Cream business (Magnum, Wall's, Ben & Jerry's) in December 2025 and, in March 2026, agreed to combine the bulk of its Foods division with US spice maker McCormick — reshaping Unilever into a more focused Beauty, Personal Care and Home Care company. On a continuing-operations basis, full-year 2025 turnover was €50.5 billion with underlying sales growth of 3.5% and an underlying operating margin of 20.0%. This report reviews the business, its financials, valuation and risks using figures from Unilever's own published results.
1. Company Snapshot
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Company | Unilever PLC |
| Ticker | ULVR.L (London Stock Exchange); also Euronext Amsterdam and NYSE (UL) |
| Sector | Consumer & Retail — fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) |
| CEO / Leadership | Fernando Fernandez (Chief Executive Officer); Srinivas Phatak (Chief Financial Officer) |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Employees | Approximately 96,000 (2025 Annual Report, after the Ice Cream demerger) |
| Market cap | ~£91 billion (~€106 billion) (June 2026) |
| Share price | ~4,144p (June 2026) |
| FY2025 revenue (turnover, continuing) | €50,503 million |
| FY2025 net profit (continuing) | €6,213 million |
| FY2025 underlying EPS | €3.08 |
| FY2025 diluted EPS (continuing) | €2.59 |
| Underlying operating margin (2025) | 20.0% |
| Reporting currency | Euro (€); shares trade in GBP on the LSE |
2. Bull & Bear Case
Bull Case
- Sharper, higher-margin portfolio: The Ice Cream demerger and the agreed combination of Foods with McCormick refocus Unilever on faster-growing, higher-margin Beauty, Personal Care and Home Care, where its Power Brands (around 78% of turnover) grew 4.3% in 2025.
- Margin and productivity gains: Underlying operating margin expanded 60bps to 20.0% in 2025 with gross margin of 46.9%, and a productivity programme delivered around €670 million of cumulative savings ahead of plan.
- Power-Brand and emerging-market reach: Double-digit growth in Wellbeing, Vaseline and Dove, plus exposure to India, Indonesia and Asia Pacific Africa, gives Unilever a long structural growth runway in personal and home care.
- Strong cash generation and returns: 100% cash conversion produced €5.9 billion of free cash flow in 2025; the group returned around €6.0 billion to shareholders (dividends plus buybacks) and announced a new €1.5 billion buyback.
- Defensive staples with pricing power: Everyday consumer essentials provide resilient demand and the ability to pass through input-cost inflation via price.
Bear Case
- Sluggish volume and slowing guidance: Underlying sales growth of 3.5% leaned heavily on price; management guided 2026 growth to the lower end of its 4–6% range amid weaker US and European demand.
- De-rating and execution risk: The shares have fallen materially in 2026, trading nearer their post-demerger 52-week low, reflecting scepticism over guidance and the scale of the transformation.
- Transformation and integration risk: Demerging Ice Cream and combining Foods with McCormick (targeted to close mid-2027) are complex, multi-year processes with regulatory, shareholder-approval and execution risks.
- Currency headwinds: A strong euro cut reported turnover by 5.9% in 2025 and trimmed underlying EPS, and adverse FX remains a recurring drag on euro-reported results.
- Intense competition: Unilever faces formidable rivals in Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, L'Oréal, Colgate-Palmolive and Reckitt, plus private-label pressure in cost-conscious markets.
3. Business Segments
Following the Ice Cream demerger, Unilever reports across four Business Groups. Foods remains in the reported results pending completion of the agreed McCormick combination. The table shows full-year 2025 turnover by segment on a continuing-operations basis.
| Segment | % of revenue | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Care | 26% (€13.2bn) | Deodorants, skin cleansing and oral care, led by Dove, Rexona, Lifebuoy and Vaseline; 22.6% underlying operating margin. |
| Foods | 26% (€12.9bn) | Cooking and condiments — Knorr, Hellmann's, Marmite; the bulk is being combined with McCormick (deal agreed March 2026). |
| Beauty & Wellbeing | 25% (€12.8bn) | Hair care, prestige beauty and health/wellbeing supplements, including Dove, Sunsilk, Liquid I.V. and Nutrafol. |
| Home Care | 23% (€11.6bn) | Laundry and household cleaning — Persil, Omo, Comfort, Domestos and Cif. |
4. Business Model & Moat
Unilever makes and markets branded consumer products at vast scale, selling through retailers, e-commerce and distributors worldwide. Its model rests on building leading brands, investing heavily in marketing and innovation, and leveraging a global supply chain and distribution network to reach billions of consumers daily.
How it makes money: Revenue comes from selling everyday products at modest unit prices but enormous volume. Growth is reported as underlying sales growth (3.5% in 2025), split between volume (1.5%) and price (2.0%), with the highest-priority Power Brands representing around 78% of turnover and growing faster than the group.
Unit economics: A gross margin of 46.9% funds brand-and-marketing investment of around 16% of turnover, leaving an underlying operating margin of 20.0%. Disciplined overhead management and a productivity programme have driven steady margin expansion, while 100% cash conversion turns profit into €5.9 billion of free cash flow.
Moat: Unilever's durable advantages are its portfolio of trusted, category-leading brands, decades-deep distribution in emerging markets (around 59% of turnover), scale economies in procurement and media, and continuous innovation. These create shelf-space advantages and consumer loyalty, though the moat is contested by equally large rivals and by private label in price-sensitive categories.
5. Financial Health
Unilever reports in euros under IFRS. The annual table below uses turnover and earnings as reported in each year's results; note the discontinuity in 2025, when figures are presented on a continuing-operations basis that excludes the demerged Ice Cream business. The long-term-debt column uses non-current financial liabilities from the balance sheet.
| Year | Revenue / turnover (€bn) | YoY % | GAAP EPS (diluted, €) | Adjusted EPS (underlying, €) | Dividend/share (€) | Long-term debt — non-current financial liabilities (€m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 52.4 | — | 2.12 | — | ~1.71 | — |
| 2022 | 60.1 | +14.6% | 2.32 | — | ~1.71 | — |
| 2023 | 59.6 | (0.8)% | 2.56 | 2.60 | ~1.71 | 24,535 |
| 2024 | 60.8 | +1.9% | 2.29 | 2.98 | ~1.81 | 25,066 |
| 2025* | 50.5 | (3.8)% | 2.59 | 3.08 | ~1.82 | 25,696 |
*2025 turnover is on a continuing-operations basis (excluding the Ice Cream business demerged on 6 December 2025); the 2025 (3.8)% change is measured against 2024 continuing-operations turnover of €52.5 billion, not the €60.8 billion total-group figure shown for 2024. Unilever held its quarterly dividend at €0.4268 (€1.71 annualised) through 2023, raised it 6.1% to €0.4528 for 2024, and a further 3% to €0.4664 from the fourth quarter of 2025. The quarterly table below shows 2025 half-year and quarterly turnover (continuing basis), most recent first, with the full-year total in bold.
| Quarter | Revenue / turnover (€bn) | Adjusted EPS | GAAP EPS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 2025 | 12.6 | — | — |
| H1 2025 | 25.8 | — | — |
| FY 2025 total (continuing) | 50.5 | 3.08 | 2.59 |
Unilever reports turnover and growth quarterly but full earnings only half-yearly, so quarterly EPS is not separately published. At year-end 2025 the balance sheet showed total assets of €70.5 billion, total equity of €17.6 billion, cash and cash equivalents of €3.9 billion and net debt of €23.1 billion, with D&A of €1.3 billion and capital expenditure of €1.4 billion during the year.
6. Valuation
Raw metrics, June 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Market cap | ~£91bn (~€106bn); ~2.19bn shares × ~4,144p |
| Trailing P/E (GAAP) | ~18.7x (price ~€48.3 / FY2025 continuing diluted EPS €2.59); ~15.7x on underlying EPS €3.08 |
| P/E (forward) | ~15–16x (price / 2026 underlying EPS, guided to broadly modest growth from €3.08) |
| P/S (TTM) | ~2.1x (market cap ~€106bn / turnover €50.5bn) |
| P/FCF | ~18x (market cap ~€106bn / free cash flow €5.9bn; FCF per FY2025 cash flow statement, capex €1.4bn) |
| Enterprise value | ~€129bn (market cap ~€106bn + net debt €23.1bn per FY2025 balance sheet) |
| EV/EBITDA (TTM) | ~12.5x (EV ~€129bn / EBITDA ~€10.3bn; EBITDA = operating profit €9.04bn + D&A €1.31bn per FY2025 accounts) |
| 52-week high | 5,542p (includes pre-demerger period) |
| 52-week low | 3,648.5p |
| Short interest (% of float) | Negligible — no FCA-disclosed net short positions at or above 0.5% of capital (June 2026) |
| Days to cover | Not meaningfully published for the LSE line; no material disclosed short interest |
7. Growth Drivers
Unilever's growth strategy centres on concentrating resources behind its biggest, highest-returning brands and exiting slower or lower-margin businesses. For 2026 management guided to underlying sales growth at the lower end of its 4–6% range, with at least 2% volume growth and modest margin improvement versus 2025.
The principal drivers are: Power Brands, which represent around 78% of turnover and are growing faster than the group through science-led, premium innovation (Dove fibre-repair, Wellbeing, Vaseline); emerging-market expansion, where India, Indonesia and Asia Pacific Africa offer volume-led growth and around 59% of turnover; portfolio reshaping, with the Ice Cream demerger complete and the Foods-McCormick combination set to free capital and management focus for Beauty, Personal Care and Home Care; the productivity programme delivering cost savings that fund reinvestment and margin gains; and disciplined capital returns through a progressive quarterly dividend and ongoing buybacks. In the first quarter of 2026 the group reported underlying sales growth of 3.8% with 2.9% volume and Power Brands up 5.0%.
8. Peer Comparison
Unilever competes with the largest global consumer-goods companies across personal care, home care and foods. The table compares scale and a key recent metric.
| Peer | Market cap (June 2026) | Key recent metric |
|---|---|---|
| Unilever (ULVR.L) | ~£91bn (~$125bn) | FY2025 turnover €50.5bn; USG 3.5%; underlying margin 20.0% |
| Procter & Gamble (PG) | ~$360bn | Principal global rival in personal and fabric care; superiority-led innovation |
| Nestlé (NESN.SW) | ~$280bn | Largest food/beverage group; competes in foods and nutrition |
| L'Oréal (OR.PA) | ~$230bn | World's largest pure-play beauty company; premium skincare and haircare |
| Colgate-Palmolive (CL) / Reckitt (RKT.L) | ~$75bn / ~£35bn | Direct competitors in oral, personal and home care |
9. Insider Activity
Unilever directors and persons discharging managerial responsibility (PDMRs) disclose dealings via regulatory news (RNS). Recent activity was driven by share-plan vesting; Chief Executive Fernando Fernandez retains a personal shareholding well above his minimum requirement after the transactions below.
| Name | Date | Type | Shares | Price | Value | Plan Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fernando Fernandez (CEO) | 12 Feb 2026 | Vest | 17,328 | £53.55 | ~£0.93m | Performance Share Plan |
| Fernando Fernandez (CEO) | 12 Feb 2026 | Sell | 17,327 | £52.50 | ~£0.91m | Sale of vested PSP shares |
10. Key Risks
- Volume / demand risk (Macro): Growth has leaned on price; weaker consumer demand in the US and Europe could keep volumes subdued and push growth to the bottom of guidance.
- Transformation execution risk (Operational): The Ice Cream demerger and the Foods-McCormick combination (targeted to close mid-2027) carry integration, regulatory-approval and disruption risks.
- Currency risk (Macro): A strong euro reduced reported turnover by 5.9% in 2025 and weighs on euro-reported earnings.
- Competition & private label (Operational): Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, L'Oréal, Colgate and Reckitt, plus private-label brands, pressure share and pricing.
- Input-cost & margin risk (Financial): Commodity, packaging and logistics inflation could squeeze margins if pricing power weakens.
- Emerging-market & geopolitical risk (Macro): Around 59% of turnover comes from emerging markets exposed to currency volatility, regulation and political instability.
11. Recent Developments
- 06 Dec 2025 — Ice Cream demerger completed. Unilever spun off its Ice Cream business as The Magnum Ice Cream Company N.V., listed in Amsterdam, London and New York, retaining a minority stake of around 19.9% to be sold down over time.
- 12 Feb 2026 — Full-year 2025 results. Continuing turnover was €50.5 billion with underlying sales growth of 3.5%, underlying operating margin of 20.0%, underlying EPS of €3.08 and free cash flow of €5.9 billion; a new €1.5 billion buyback was announced and the quarterly dividend raised 3%.
- 31 Mar 2026 — Foods to combine with McCormick. Unilever agreed to combine the majority of its Foods business with McCormick in a transaction valuing the combined group at around $44.8 billion; McCormick will pay roughly $15.7 billion in cash, Unilever shareholders will own about 65% of the combined company and Unilever will retain a 9.9% stake, with closing targeted for mid-2027.
- 30 Apr 2026 — First-quarter 2026 trading statement. Underlying sales grew 3.8% with 2.9% volume and Power Brands up 5.0%; management guided full-year 2026 growth to the lower end of its 4–6% range on softer US and European demand.
- Q2 2026 — 2026 share buyback completed. Unilever confirmed completion of its 2026 on-market buyback programme, cancelling repurchased shares.
12. Key Dates
- 30 Apr 2026 — First-quarter 2026 trading statement (reported)
- 28 Jul 2026 — Second-quarter and half-year 2026 results
- 22 Oct 2026 — Third-quarter 2026 trading statement (provisional)
- Expected mid-2027 — Targeted completion of the Foods combination with McCormick, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval
- 12 Feb 2027 — Full-year 2026 results (provisional)
Quarterly dividends are paid in March, June, September and December. Provisional dates follow Unilever's historical reporting calendar; confirm via the Unilever investor relations calendar. Explore live prices on our Live Charts page, track macro releases on the Economic Calendar, and discuss ideas on the ChartsView Forum.
Disclaimer: This research is produced by ChartsView for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. All information is sourced from publicly available company filings, press releases, and official data. ChartsView does not use analyst opinions or third-party ratings. Always conduct your own due diligence and consider your personal financial situation before making investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
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13. Thesis Verdict
The central thesis. Unilever is a global consumer-goods leader making branded personal care, home care, beauty and foods products sold in over 190 countries. On a continuing basis, FY2025 turnover was €50.5 billion with underlying sales growth of 3.5%, an underlying operating margin of 20.0% (up 60bps), underlying EPS of €3.08 and €5.9 billion of free cash flow. The company is reshaping its portfolio — it demerged Ice Cream in December 2025 and agreed in March 2026 to combine most of Foods with McCormick — to concentrate on faster-growing, higher-margin categories led by its Power Brands (around 78% of turnover).
What would confirm or break it. The thesis is confirmed by sustained Power-Brand and emerging-market volume growth, further margin expansion and successful completion of the McCormick combination and demerger, with cash returned via a progressive dividend and buybacks. It would be invalidated by persistently weak volumes pushing growth to the bottom of guidance, execution or regulatory setbacks in the multi-year transformation, or currency and competitive pressure eroding the margin and cash-generation profile.
Watchpoints
- ConfirmsSecond-quarter and half-year 2026 results (52 days) landing in line with or above management guidance.
- ConfirmsEvidence supporting the "Sharper, higher-margin portfolio:" thesis continuing to build across subsequent filings.
- InvalidatesMaterialisation of the "Transformation execution risk (Operational):" risk, or any disclosure that fundamentally alters the capital-return or growth profile stated by management.
Diagnostic grid
Generated by ChartsView research tooling. Thesis strength measures how well the evidence in this report supports the company's stated thesis — it is NOT a buy/sell rating or price target. ChartsView is not authorised by the FCA to provide regulated investment advice. Generated 6 Jun 2026.