Hargreaves says Unilever shares are a hold after Q1 update

24th Apr 2014 09:23

Hargreaves Lansdown said the City was advising investors to hang onto their shares in Unilever as the consumer goods group faced currency headwinds and below-inflation wage growth.Unilever said on Thursday that trading in Europe had improved in its first quarter but growth was slowing in emerging markets as it reported a 6.3% fall in turnover to €11.4bn.Keith Bowman at Hargreaves said Unilever had echoed a tough environment outlined by rival Procter & Gamble yesterday.He said the strong euro was providing a stiff currency headwind for the group's targeted emerging markets, while political difficulties in Russia were unhelpful.Bowman added that ongoing investigations by a number of national competition authorities were further cause for concern, although he noted that Unilever was revamping products and raising prices to counter higher commodity costs.He said: "In all, with consumers in many of the group's markets pressured by currency movements and wage growth which remains below inflation, branded consumer goods are, for now, a tough place to be."Despite expected long term benefit from the company's growing exposure to the emerging markets, consensus analyst opinion currently points towards a hold."PW