L'Oréal has climbed nearly 5% to lead the CAC40 index in Paris, on the heels of a first-quarter 2024 publication "of high quality, with almost all regions and divisions well above forecasts", according to UBS.
At over 11.2 billion euros, the cosmetics giant's sales rose by 8.1% organically (and adjusted for the impact of an IT system change in North America), double Oddo BHF's expectation (and two points above consensus).
The research firm now anticipates organic sales growth of 7.7% and EPS growth of 8% for 2024, "a level sufficiently high to further support demanding but justified valuation multiples".
While both maintain their 'neutral' positions on L'Oréal, UBS and Oddo BHF are raising their price targets to 467 and 416 euros respectively, while Jefferies is maintaining its 'underperform' opinion and its target of 355 euros.
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L'Oréal is the world leading cosmetic group. The group offers skincare products (39.9% of sales), makeup products (19.7%), haircare products (15.4%), fragrances (12.6%), hair colouring products (8.3%) and other (4,1%). Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- consumer cosmetics (36.9%): L'Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline New York, NYX Professional Makeup, Essie Niely, Dark and Lovely, Mixa, MG and Carol's Daughter brands;
- luxury cosmetics (36.2%): Lancôme, Kiehl's, Giorgio Armani Beauty, Yves Saint Laurent Beauté, Biotherm, Helena Rubinstein, Shu Uemura, IT Cosmetics, Urban Decay, Ralph Lauren, Mugler, Viktor&Rolf, Valentino, Azzaro, Prada, Takami, A?sop, etc.;
- active cosmetics (15,6%): La Roche-Posay, Vichy, CeraVe, SkinCeuticals, Skinbetter Science, etc.;
- professional products (11,3%): L'Oréal Professionnel, Kérastase, Redken, Matrix and PureOlogy brands.
Products are marketed through mass distribution and distance selling, selective distribution, hair salons and pharmacies.
At the end of 2023, L'Oréal has 37 production sites worldwide.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Europe (31.6%), North America (27%), North Asia (25.9%), Asia/Pacific/Middle East/Africa (8.4%) and Latin America (7.1%).