Deutsche Bank Says Buy Unilever Despite Low Growth

Following the company's third quarter earnings release, Deutsche Bank analyst Harold Thompson maintained a Buy rating and 34 euro price target on Unilever plc UL.

Thompson began by noting Unilever reported weak sales in the third quarter. He pointed out a good portion of this weakness was due to a 20 percent drop in Chinese sales to reflect a "stagnant" Chinese market. However, he stressed placing all the blame on China would be misguided as market growth is "universally weak."

Thompson commented, "Despite the low growth, we see Unilever achieving near double-digit EPS growth in FY 15 with a four percent yield which looks very attractive." He added, "All in, Unilever is in genuinely robust shape in what is clearly a frustratingly slow growth environment for its categories."

Despite the positive sentiment from Deutsche Bank, shares of Unilever are down ~2 percent in Thursday's pre-market session.