Company Reports

Henkel's sales growth accelerated to 4.7% in the second quarter, up from just shy of 2% in the first, outpacing Vara-compiled consensus. M&A added another 2.5%. Henkel raised its full-year sales growth guidance by 0.5 points to 1.5%–3.5%. Shares rose about 4% at the market open on Aug. 6.

Henkel operates two distinct business units: adhesive technologies and consumer brands. It holds a global leadership position in adhesives and sealants and maintains strong market positions in laundrycare and haircare in its consumer portfolio.

Henkel booked 1.7% organic sales growth in the first quarter with continued positive volume momentum. It confirmed full-year guidance despite mentioning challenges in materials and logistics inflation. Shares rose about 4% at the May 7 market open.

Henkel operates two distinct business units: adhesive technologies and consumer brands. It holds a global leadership position in adhesives and sealants and maintains strong market positions in laundrycare and haircare in its consumer portfolio.

Henkel reported 2.3% organic sales growth in the fourth quarter, accelerating sequentially but falling short of full-year guidance, mainly due to weak performance in consumer brands, despite volume turning positive in the second half. Shares fell about 4% at the market open on March 11.

Henkel operates two distinct business units: adhesive technologies and consumer brands. It holds a global leadership position in adhesives and sealants and maintains strong market positions in laundry care and haircare within its consumer portfolio.

Henkel reported organic sales growth of 1.4% for the third quarter of 2025—a solid sequential improvement from the negative first half. The growth was primarily driven by the mobility and electronics business, while consumer brands remained broadly flat compared with the previous quarter.

Henkel operates two distinct business units: adhesive technologies and consumer brands. It holds a global leadership position in adhesives and sealants and maintains strong market positions in laundry care and haircare within its consumer portfolio.

Henkel reported a first-half organic sales decline of 0.1% and a 15.5% EBIT margin, beating the 15.1% Vara consensus. Full-year guidance was narrowed for organic sales and margin, while the EPS growth outlook was maintained. Shares rose 2% in early trading on Aug. 7.

Henkel reported a 1% decline in organic sales for the first quarter of 2025, reflecting a sequential slowdown, primarily driven by weak volumes in its consumer brands segment. Shares were trading around 1% lower on May 8.

Henkel reported 2024 organic sales growth of 2.6% with sequential worsening in the fourth quarter amid a challenging environment, particularly in the automotive sector. Management warned of further volume weakness in the first quarter of 2025, sending the share price down around 10%.

Henkel delivered third-quarter organic sales growth of 3.3%, with a sequential improvement for adhesive technologies and a slightly weaker performance for consumer brands. Management is optimistic about reaching the upper end of the previously communicated full-year EBIT margin and EPS growth range.

In January 2022, Henkel announced the decision to combine its beauty care and laundry and home care business units into one consumer unit in an attempt to achieve more synergies in its customer and channel execution after years of subpar performance, especially in North America. While we believe that operating an overall larger portfolio is important in driving customer management, we see limited upside in terms of growth as there is little marketing and innovation expertise to be shared between the units. Moreover, large competitors in the space are moving in the opposite direction, with Unilever for instance recently announcing that it would move from three divisions to five business groups, with each responsible for end-to-end strategy and execution.

Narrow-moat Henkel delivered first-half 2024 organic sales growth of 2.9% and an adjusted EBIT margin of 14.9%, in line with the preliminary figures shared in July. Most impressively, the group gross margin was 50.2%, 660 basis points ahead of the same period of last year and a record level for Henkel in recent history. The main factors behind this performance were lower material costs, pricing actions, and savings from cost reduction and efficiency measures implemented as part of the ongoing integration of consumer brands into one business unit. With direct material costs expected to increase sequentially in the second half, the full-year gross margin should be slightly lower. Henkel has also stepped up marketing and promotional investment in 2024 to reignite volume growth and support innovation launches. We expect this to continue in the second half, which, together with the slightly lower gross margin, should bring the full-year adjusted EBIT margin in the range of 13.5%-14.5% as per the guidance update shared in July. We do not expect to make significant changes to our EUR 86 fair value estimate after incorporating the full set of results into our forecast.

Narrow-moat Henkel increased its 2024 guidance for adjusted EBIT margin and earnings per share after substantially beating profit expectations in its preliminary first-half 2024 results. The full-year adjusted EBIT margin is now expected in the range of 13.5% to 14.5% from 13% to 14% previously, while adjusted earnings per preferred share are expected to increase by 20% to 30%, from 15% to 25% previously. The main driver of this update is the higher expected operating margin for the consumer segment, where Henkel has been reaping at an accelerated pace the cost-saving benefits of the integration of the beauty care and laundry and homecare divisions into one business unit. We are yet to see the top line benefit of the move, however, with volume still negative in the second quarter, primarily due to the ongoing portfolio optimization measures. The 2024 organic sales growth guidance was confirmed at 3% to 5% for the consumer unit, which is on track at the midpoint of the year, so far entirely driven by price. We do not expect to make a material change to our fair value estimate of EUR 86 after incorporating the higher profit guidance. At current levels, we believe the preferred share is fairly valued.

In January 2022, Henkel announced the decision to combine its beauty care and laundry and home care business units into one consumer unit in an attempt to achieve more synergies in its customer and channel execution after years of subpar performance, especially in North America. While we believe that operating an overall larger portfolio is important in driving customer management, we see limited upside in terms of growth as there is little marketing and innovation expertise to be shared between the units. Moreover, large competitors in the space are moving in the opposite direction, with Unilever for instance recently announcing that it would move from three divisions to five business groups, with each responsible for end-to-end strategy and execution.

Narrow-moat Henkel reported first-quarter 2024 organic sales growth of 3%, slightly ahead of the Vara consensus of 2.7%. The group saw resilient pricing and sequential improvement in volumes across both operating segments. Given the solid momentum, management recently upgraded the full-year guidance, now expecting adjusted EPS growth of 15%-25% from 5%-20% previously. This should be driven by stronger organic sales growth in the range of 2.5%-4.5% (from 2%-4% previously) and a higher adjusted EBIT margin in the range of 13%-14% (from 12%-13.5% previously). The share price has soared around 20% over the last six months, converging to our fair value estimate, which we increase by 5% to EUR 86 to account for the time value of money and an improvement in our short-term forecast. Our 2024 forecast calls for organic sales growth of 3.7% and an adjusted EBIT margin of 13%, compared with 2.4% and 12.4% previously, respectively.

Narrow-moat Henkel reported 2023 adjusted operating profit of EUR 2.6 billion, in line with our expectations, guidance, and Vara consensus. This represents year-over-year growth of around 10% and translated into an operating margin improvement of 150 basis points to 11.9%. Positive pricing developments combined with measures to reduce costs in the adhesive technologies and consumer brands divisions were the primary drivers of this performance. As expected, the integration of the beauty care and the laundry and homecare businesses into one consumer brands unit already achieved EUR 200 million of savings in 2023 out of the total of EUR 250 million expected by the end of 2024. However, the macroeconomic picture for 2024 remains challenging, with management anticipating modest growth in industrial demand and consumer spending. The company expects organic sales growth of 2%-4% alongside an adjusted operating margin of 12%-13.5%. Our 2024 forecast is toward the lower end of both these ranges, assuming revenue growth of 2.4% and an adjusted EBIT margin of 12.4%. We don’t expect to make any material changes to our estimates at this time and confirm our EUR 82 fair value estimate. Shares remain undervalued.

Narrow-moat Henkel reported sequential volume improvement and hinted at continued profit margin recovery in its third-quarter trading update. The integration of the beauty care and laundry and home care business units into one consumer brands unit is progressing ahead of plan, with 80% of the targeted first phase net savings of around EUR 250 million expected to be achieved this year. These are primarily personnel-related savings as Henkel implements a leaner organizational setup. Given the positive developments in the quarter, the full-year guidance was narrowed at the higher end for both organic sales growth and adjusted EBIT margin. Organic sales growth is expected to end the year between 3.5% to 4.5% (from 2.5% to 4.5% previously), while the adjusted EBIT margin is expected to fall between 11.5% and 12.5% from a range of 11% to 12.5% previously. Given the higher savings expected this year, we have increased our 2023 adjusted EBIT margin forecast to 12% from 11% previously. Still, negative currency effects and the impact of the sale of the business in Russia weigh on the top line and more than offset the benefit of the higher expected organic sales growth, leaving our 2023 nominal sales forecast 3.4% lower compared to 2022. With this, our fair value estimate remains unchanged at EUR 82 per share. Shares were up around 3% in intraday trading but continue to be undervalued.

In January 2022, Henkel announced the decision to combine its beauty care and laundry and home care business units into one consumer unit in an attempt to achieve more synergies in its customer and channel execution after years of subpar performance, especially in North America. While we believe that operating an overall larger portfolio is important in driving customer management, we see limited upside in terms of growth as there is little marketing and innovation expertise to be shared between the units. Moreover, large competitors in the space are moving in the opposite direction, with Unilever for instance recently announcing that it would move from three divisions to five business groups, with each responsible for end-to-end strategy and execution.