Shares of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) were muted ahead of its second-quarter results on Wednesday.

What Happened: Kotak Institutional Equities expects the company’s revenue to increase 4% but estimates net profit to fall marginally.

The brokerage anticipates a 5% year-on-year growth in the company’s underlying volume growth, up from 2% in the second quarter of FY24. It expects like-for-like (LFL) revenue growth of 4%.

Kotak forecasts the home care (HC) business to grow 5.3%. beauty and personal care (BPC) revenue to show 3% like-for-like growth and remaining flat on a reported basis, driven by increased sales in personal wash. It sees foods and refreshment (F&R) segment’s growth at 4.5%. Kotak projects a stable gross margin of 51.4% and EBITDA margin to remain largely flat at 23.4%.

Yes Securities sees operational revenue rising by 2.5% while it sees profit going down by a significant 2.9%. With no changes in the demand environment since the first quarter of FY25, the brokerage expects HUL to achieve a year-on-year underlying volume growth of around 4%.

Given some inflation in key commodities, it projects a gross margin of 51.2%. Consequently, EBITDA margins are expected to contract by about 120 basis points year on year and EBITDA is likely to decrease by 2.5%.

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According to Axis Securities, the company is poised to report a 4% rise in revenue and profit after tax going up 1.7%. EBITDA margin is likely to see marginal decline owing to higher ad-spends, higher roaylty payment and GSK consignment sales termination, Axis said. Demand outlook for rural versus urban areas, competitive landscape and trends in raw materials are expected to be key monitorables, the brokerage noted.

HDFC Securities sees the company’s revenue going up by 2.9% year-on-year and profit improving 3%. Rural slowdown, weak macroeconomic conditions and heightened competition will continue to negatively impact demand, while a higher royalty rate and the termination of the GSK consumer distribution contract are expected to hurt margins, it said.

Centrum Institutional Research had the most optimistic outlook for the company’s revenue which it sees growing by 4.5%. On the other hand, it estimates profit to decrease by 1.1%. It expects Home care segment, BPC and F&R verticals to grow by 5.5%, 3.5% and 5.7% respectively. It expects a decline of 78 basis points in EBITDA margin to 23.4%.

On average, analysts expect the fast-moving consumer goods giant to report a revenue of ₹15,686 crore and a profit of ₹2,681 crore

Price Action: Hindustan Unilever was trading flat at ₹2,679.95 on Wednesday.

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