(Boursier.com) — L’Oreal did not escape the general decline in the markets with a title which lost 1.5% to 380.5 euros. The world’s number one cosmetics company reported growth lower than analysts’ expectations in the third quarter, affected by a difficult travel retail market in China and Korea. Activity increased by 11.1% like-for-like with sales down by a surprise 4.8% in the North Asia region.
L’Oréal’s FMCG division, with brands such as Maybelline New York and L’Oréal Paris, recorded growth of more than 13% over the period, as customers shift to less expensive brands. expensive while inflation continues to squeeze household budgets.
A slowdown in L’Oréal’s luxury division was expected after LVMH’s perfumes and cosmetics division narrowly missed consensus last week, but with growth limited to just 3.2% versus 12.2% forecast, it This is a negative surprise for the market, underlines Jefferies.
“Luxury and North Asia largely missed analyst expectations due to a more painful than expected reset quarter for retail in Asia (Hainan/Korea) and an overall slow recovery in the Chinese market of beauty,” writes Stifel. However, all other product divisions and regions far exceeded expectations, with L’Oréal gaining significant market share across the board, with reassuring performances in North America and Europe in particular, the broker adds.
For Oddo BHF (‘neutral’), the group’s very good operational performance is in line with expectations. It is nevertheless likely that the stock’s reaction will be slightly negative due to Luxury, China and high valuation multiples, even if they can be justified by an increasing scarcity effect, underlined the analyst before the opening.
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