Zurich, Oct 15 - Nestle SA , the world's largest food company, is expected to post 3.6 percent organic sales growth in the first nine months.
Closely-watched underlying, or organic, sales growth, strips out currency effects and acquisitions. The 12 analysts polled by Reuters forecast on average that sales including those factors would fall 1.4 percent to 80.3 billion Swiss francs ($79.2 billion).
The maker of Nescafe coffee, KitKat chocolate bars and Maggi soup reported lower-than-expected organic sales growth of 3.5 percent in the first half.
It also dropped its previous target for 2009 organic sales growth of "at least approaching 5 percent", saying only it expects volume-driven organic growth to accelerate in the second half.
NestleChief Executive Paul Bulcke told Reuters last month he expects the global economy to recover a little faster than first thought, helping to boost the company's sales growth, especially in late 2009.
Bulcke said then he was happy with analysts' forecasts for underlying 2009 sales growth of 4.1 percent.
Nine-month sales were expected to have taken a 4.3 percent hit from foreign exchange effects, largely due to the strong Swiss franc, which also hit first-half sales.
Analysts on average forecast price rises to contribute 2.7 percent to organic growth while volume growth should strengthen slightly to 0.9 percent.
"We expect continued weak volume growth in Europe, while the situation in the Americas and Asia should have improved. With regard to product categories, we forecast a considerable acceleration at Nutrition and a recovery at PetCare," Vontobel analysts Claudia Lenz and Rene Weber said in a note.
The day before Nestle's results all eyes will be on Britain's Cadbury Plc , subject to a bid proposal from Kraft Foods Inc , when it gives a third-quarter trading update. Nestle has declined to comment on whether it might make a counterbid.
French food group Danone SA reports on Oct. 23, while Unilever Plc/NV , the world's third-biggest food and consumer goods group, reports on Nov. 5.
Nestle shares, which have underperformed the DJ Stoxx European food and beverage index <.SX3P> this year by more than 10 percent, are trading at about 13.8 times 2010 earnings, compared with about 15.4 times for Danone and 15 times for Unilever.
Following is a summary of analysts' forecasts for Nestle. The company is due to report figures on Thursday at 0530 GMT.
(Figures in million Swiss francs, except EPS and dividend in francs)
9 months
Mean Median High Low No. Yr ago Change%
Sales 80,254 80,249 80,884 79,630 8 81,362 -1.4
Sales growth 9 months
-Organic growth (%) 3.6 3.5 3.9 3.4 12 8.9 n/a
- -RIG (%) 0.9 0.9 1.2 0.4 12 3.4 n/a
- -Price (%) 2.7 2.7 3.0 2.5 12 5.5 n/a
-Acquisitions (%) -0.5 -0.6 0.0 -0.7 11 2.5 n/a
-Exchange (%) -4.3 -4.5 -3.5 -5.0 12 -8.0 n/a
FY2009
Mean Median High Low No. Yr ago Change%
Sales 109,658 109,219 111,188 108,350 7 109,908 -0.2
EBIT 15,940 15,817 16,265 15,797 5 15,676 1.7
Pretax profit 14,724 14,688 15,080 14,447 5 21,833 -32.6
Net profit* 10,454 10,383 10,770 10,239 6 18,039 -42.0
EPS - fully diluted 2.86 2.85 2.95 2.81 6 4.84 -40.9
Dividend per share 1.44 1.44 1.52 1.40 5 1.40 2.9
Sales growth FY2009
-Organic growth (%) 3.9 3.9 4.4 2.8 10 8.3 n/a
- -RIG (%) 1.5 1.6 2.0 0.7 10 2.8 n/a
- -Price (%) 2.4 2.4 2.8 2.1 10 5.5 n/a
-Acquisitions (%) -0.4 -0.3 0.0 -0.7 9 1.7 n/a
-Exchange (%) -3.7 -3.8 -2.4 -5.0 10 -7.8 n/a
FY2010
Mean Median High Low No.
Sales 113,988 113,344 116,557 112,379 5
EBIT 16,823 16,534 17,380 16,418 5
Pretax profit 15,571 15,202 16,315 14,867 5
Net profit* 10,989 10,894 11,525 10,458 5
EPS - fully diluted 3.01 2.98 3.16 2.87 5
Dividend per share 1.55 1.56 1.70 1.40 5
Sales growth FY2010
-Organic growth (%) 4.5 5.0 5.3 3.2 5
- -RIG (%) 2.9 3.0 3.9 2.0 5
- -Price (%) 1.7 1.9 2.0 1.0 5
-Acquisitions (%) 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 5
-Exchange (%) -0.4 0.0 0.0 -2.0 5