Unilever plc (ADR) (UL): Is The Company an Exciting Emerging Market Play?

So is Unilever a buy?
Broker Investec expects earnings per share to edge 4% higher in 2013, to 143 pence, before accelerating thereafter with growth of 10% to 157 pence predicted for 2014.

Unilever plc (ADR) (NYSE:UL) also offers investors increasingly tantalizing dividends and has rebuilt its payout policy after 2009’s heavy full-year dividend fall. Expected payouts of 86.8 pence and 94.2 pence for this year and next present yields of 3.1% and 3.4%, around the prospective average for the FTSE 100, but which should head north in coming years as the firm’s progressive dividend policy gathers pace.

Unilever plc (ADR) (NYSE:UL) currently deals on a P/E rating of 19.3 and 17.6 for 2013 and 2014, correspondingly, heady levels when compared with a forward earnings multiple of 11.5 for the entire food producers and processors sector. However, I believe that the company’s weighty fulcrum toward developing markets should keep earnings rolling strongly in coming years, justifying Unilever plc (ADR) (NYSE:UL)’s strong rating vs. its peers.

The article Is Unilever an Exciting Emerging Market Play? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Royston Wild does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned. The Motley Fool has recommended shares of Unilever.

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