Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves
Speaker 2: in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
Speaker 3: But let's take a look at some stocks on the
Speaker 3: move today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined
Speaker 3: by our breaking news editor Louise Moon. Louise, good morning.
Speaker 3: Let's start with Unilever. A downgrade for them.
Speaker 1: Indeed, yes, a downgrade by Kepler from a buy to
Speaker 1: a hold. Now they had had Unileva as a buye
Speaker 1: since twenty twenty one, so quite a big change in
Speaker 1: that sense from them. They're saying that yes, Unileva is
Speaker 1: a safe play when it comes to AI, so obviously
Speaker 1: that we've seen throughout the market's worries of AI disruption.
Speaker 1: But they're saying, yes, it is a safe play. So
Speaker 1: that's the positive end. But they see better value elsewhere
Speaker 1: across Europe in the space, in the FMCG space, and
Speaker 1: so therefore they're seeing limited near term upside essentially, so
Speaker 1: they've downgraded them. It follows results from the Unilever last
Speaker 1: week that saw shares fall on the back of that.
Speaker 1: They gave quite cautious guidance for twenty andy six. They're
Speaker 1: warning of slower market in the US in the US,
Speaker 1: which is offsetting growth in emerging markets. They've also had
Speaker 1: a bit of a slow start to the year, and
Speaker 1: in the even wider context, it comes in the middle
Speaker 1: of their big turnaround. So they've been embarking on a
Speaker 1: turnaround for quite a while now, and the main part
Speaker 1: of that is kind of streamlining and selling off brands
Speaker 1: that don't necessarily scale more internationally, focusing on their core
Speaker 1: products and focusing on boosting them and growing them.
Speaker 4: That is under their CEO, who joined last.
Speaker 1: March, but he's continuing in continuing previous plans. It's been
Speaker 1: long ongoing and investors have largely welcomed it, so shares
Speaker 1: have risen since the CEO took over. But their results
Speaker 1: last week and this downgrade today shows that there's still
Speaker 1: kind of a lot of barriers to overcome and a
Speaker 1: lot still to be done to convince investors that their
Speaker 1: turnaround is taking shape and has legs going forward as well.
Speaker 3: Okay, so that's one story and focus from Markets Applied Nutrition. Meanwhile,
Speaker 3: there shares up six point eight percent. What's driving that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, they had a update this morning.
Speaker 1: Essentially all quite positive going forward for Applied Nutrition and Shares,
Speaker 1: as you say, are reacting well on the back of this.
Speaker 1: So this was a This is their third guidance hike
Speaker 1: in a row.
Speaker 4: And you know, it's.
Speaker 1: Always quite an interesting company to talk about in the
Speaker 1: sense of it only listed relatively recently in the UK,
Speaker 1: so it's one of the rare listings that we've seen
Speaker 1: in the UK. So it's an interesting one to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on to see how they're doing. But as
Speaker 1: I say, they've boosted guidance. They're saying there's a lot
Speaker 1: of demand for their products and diversification across the high street,
Speaker 1: big push obviously into health, so that's really benefiting them
Speaker 1: and their shares this morning.
Speaker 3: Okay, and now we're also watching shares this morning in
Speaker 3: well Well the artists formerly known as Boohoo, which is
Speaker 3: now known as Dead as down ten percent. What's going on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the big drop for them is the most since
Speaker 1: August and extending drops that we've been seeing. So they've
Speaker 1: had drops of about one percent over the past twelve months.
Speaker 1: So the latest news is they're planning an acuity raise
Speaker 1: of about thirty five million pounds and some of the
Speaker 1: company directors are participating in that, also holding talks with
Speaker 1: lenders for what they say, to give them greater financial
Speaker 1: flexibility for their turnaround. So analysts saying that investors might
Speaker 1: be a bit dismayed of their financial situation. They did
Speaker 1: reaffirm guidance for twenty six and twenty twenty seven, but
Speaker 1: you know, potentially a bit of dismay around their current situation.
Speaker 4: As you say, they.
Speaker 1: Rebranded, So they've rebranded last year to Debenham's Group from
Speaker 1: Boohoo and trying to turn themselves around a total overhaul
Speaker 1: really to turn themselves into quite an asset light model.
Speaker 1: So that's still taking place. It's still going on. There's
Speaker 1: also a lot of pressure from Mike Ashley, who's one
Speaker 1: of their shareholders.
Speaker 4: He's been pushing for board representation.
Speaker 1: So they're kind of deep grappling with a lot of
Speaker 1: the moment and this actually Raises is the latest part
Speaker 1: of that, so not being taken too well.
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