Company Reports

Beiersdorf's organic sales declined 2.3% in the second quarter, an improvement from the 4.6% decline in the first quarter, driven by a recovery in La Prairie and continued strength in derma. Nivea remained weak, down 6.8% organically in the first half, driving a negative revision to guidance.

Beiersdorf’s strategy focuses on three key growth drivers: skincare prioritization, white-space penetration, and accelerating digital transformation. For most of the past five years, the company translated this into an innovation program weighted heavily toward facecare, the fastest-growing skincare subcategory. That focus delivered strong consumer segment growth of around 8% on average between 2021 and 2025, but it also left categories like bodycare and deodorant comparatively underinvested. As competitive pressure from independent and local brands intensifies, this imbalance is contributing to a sharp slowdown in growth in 2026 and prompting management to rebalance investment across the whole portfolio rather than concentrate it in facecare. We expect this rebalancing will take some time to be reflected in the top line, with growth remaining subdued in 2027 before accelerating toward the midsingle digits from 2028.

Beiersdorf's organic sales declined by 4.6% in the first quarter, missing management's guidance of a low-single-digit decline, driven by weakness in Nivea (negative 7%) and La Prairie (negative 15%). Shares fell around 3% on April 21, extending the year-to-date loss to almost 20%.

Beiersdorf’s strategy focuses on three key growth drivers: skincare prioritization, white-space penetration, and an acceleration of digital transformation. In the past few years, the company has put the strategy into action by focusing its innovation program on skincare, with an emphasis on facial care as the fastest-growing subcategory. We believe this strategy is wise, given that the facial care segment features faster growth and higher margins than the body care segment, to which Beiersdorf and its flagship brand Nivea have been historically overindexed.

Beiersdorf's organic sales grew 3.9% in the fourth quarter after being largely flat in prior quarters. However, 2026 guidance was very cautious, with management expecting flat to slightly positive organic sales growth and a decline in the operating margin. Shares plunged 18% intraday on March 3.

Beiersdorf reported modest third-quarter organic sales growth of 2.1% for its consumer segment. Weakness in its flagship Nivea brand offset continued strength in the derma portfolio. Management lowered full-year top-line guidance once again. Shares were broadly flat in Oct. 23 trading.

Beiersdorf reported modest first-half organic sales growth of 1.9% for the consumer segment. The full-year guidance was reduced, sending shares 10% lower in early trading on Aug. 6.

Beiersdorf’s strategy focuses on three key growth drivers: skincare prioritization, white-space penetration, and an acceleration of digital transformation. In the past few years, the company has put the strategy into action by focusing its innovation program on skincare, with an emphasis on facial care as the fastest-growing subcategory. We believe this strategy is wise, given that the facial care segment features faster growth and higher margins than the body care segment, to which Beiersdorf and its flagship brand Nivea have been historically overindexed.

Beiersdorf delivered first-quarter 2025 organic sales growth of 3.6%, with the consumer segment (85% of sales) growing by a more modest 2.3%. Management confirmed the full-year organic sales growth guidance of 4%-6% and a slight improvement in EBIT margin at the group level.

Beiersdorf delivered a solid performance in fiscal 2024, with organic sales growth of 6.5% for the group and 7.5% for the consumer segment. The adjusted EBIT margin improved 50 basis points to 13.9%.

Beiersdorf’s strategy focuses on three key growth drivers: skincare prioritization, white-space penetration, and an acceleration of digital transformation. In the past few years, the company has put the strategy into action by focusing its innovation program on skincare, with an emphasis on facial care as the fastest-growing subcategory. We believe this strategy is wise, given that the facial care segment features faster growth and higher margins than the body care segment, to which Beiersdorf and its flagship brand Nivea have been historically overindexed.

Narrow-moat Beiersdorf delivered first-half 2024 organic sales growth of 7.1% and an operating margin of 16.2%, 110 basis points below the prior year. Organic growth for the consumer segment decelerated substantially in the second quarter in Western Europe and North America, to around flat and negative 5%, respectively. The North American skincare market remained challenging, exacerbated by unfavorable weather conditions weighing on sales for the suncare business. Weakness in Western Europe was mainly attributed to a double-digit decline in travel retail sales for the ultraluxury brand La Prairie.

We increase our fair value estimate for narrow-moat Beiersdorf by 6% to EUR 106 per share after reflecting in our forecast the strong first-quarter sales growth as well as a small revision to our midterm estimates. The consumer segment continued its positive momentum with organic sales growth of 10%, primarily driven by Nivea and the dermatological brands. La Prairie also returned to modest growth of 1% in the first quarter after a very weak performance last year and measures taken to normalize stock levels at the end of last year. Given these results, management upgraded its guidance for the consumer business to 6%-8% organic sales growth from midsingle digits previously. We believe this is realistic in light of the strong start to the year, even when assuming a substantial slowdown in sales growth in the coming quarters as price contribution to growth dwindles and volume growth normalizes. The Tesa business struggled in the first quarter, with like-for-like sales down 5.4%. Despite this, management confirmed its sales growth guidance of 2%-5% for Tesa for the full year. We believe this will be difficult to achieve as it would imply a very strong recovery in some ailing end markets such as electronics in Asia and North America. Even considering the bump in our fair value estimate, the shares appear overvalued, trading at a premium of around 20%.

Beiersdorf’s strategy focuses on three key growth drivers: skincare prioritization, white-space penetration, and an acceleration of digital transformation. CEO Vincent Warnery, appointed in 2021, has emphasized his continued support of this, having been part of Beiersdorf’s executive board at the time the strategy was introduced in 2019. In the past few years, Beiersdorf has put the strategy into action by focusing its innovation program on the skincare category, with an emphasis on facial care as the fastest-growing subcategory. We believe this strategy is wise, given that the facial care segment features faster growth and higher margins than the body care segment, in which Beiersdorf and its flagship brand Nivea have been historically overindexed.

Narrow-moat Beiersdorf delivered 2023 full-year net income of EUR 749 million, below the FactSet consensus of EUR 896 million and our forecast of EUR 876 million. The growth momentum was maintained, as the company delivered 10.8% organic sales growth, with a balanced contribution from price and volume for the consumer brands. The gap to the market’s profit expectation was driven by a lower-than-expected EBIT margin and a higher-than-expected effective tax rate. The 13.4% EBIT margin represents a 20-basis-point year-over-year improvement, which is modest in the context of a 100-basis-point improvement in gross margin to 57.3%. The investments in advertising and promotions and research and development were increased ahead of sales driven by higher investment in digital media and the skincare category. For 2024, management expects mid-single-digit growth and an EBIT margin “slightly” ahead of last year. The share price was down around 4% in early trading, likely due to the profit miss. We don’t expect to materially change our EUR 100 fair value estimate after incorporating these results and the 2024 guidance, and we continue to view shares as expensive.

Beiersdorf’s strategy, C.A.R.E.+, focuses on three key growth drivers: skincare prioritization, white-space penetration, and an acceleration of digital transformation. Vincent Warnery, the new CEO appointed in May 2021, has emphasized his continued support for the strategy, having been part of Beiersdorf’s executive board at the time it was introduced in 2019. In the past few years, Beiersdorf has put the strategy into action by focusing its innovation program on the skincare category, with an emphasis on facial care, as the fastest-growing subcategory. We believe this strategy is wise, given that the facial care segment features both faster growth and higher margins than the body care segment, in which Beiersdorf, and its flagship brand Nivea, have been historically over-indexed.

Narrow-moat Beiersdorf largely maintained its growth momentum in third-quarter 2023, delivering organic sales growth of 11.2% for the first nine months, compared with 12.3% in the first half. The performance was driven by the consumer segment, with year-to-date organic sales growth of 13.6%, while the Tesa segment's performance continued to be muted, posting year-to-date organic sales growth of 1.3%. In light of strong growth momentum, its full-year guidance for the consumer segment was increased once again. Management now expects low-double-digit organic sales growth for the segment, compared with a high-single-digit to low-double-digit range previously. Our forecast already called for 13% organic sales growth for the consumer segment in 2023, so we make no changes to our model and confirm our EUR 100 fair value estimate. We believe shares are expensive at current levels.

Beiersdorf’s strategy, C.A.R.E.+, focuses on three key growth drivers: skincare prioritization, white-space penetration, and an acceleration of digital transformation. Vincent Warnery, the new CEO appointed in May 2021, has emphasized his continued support for the strategy, having been part of Beiersdorf’s executive board at the time it was introduced in 2019. In the past few years, Beiersdorf has put the strategy into action by focusing its innovation program on the skincare category, with an emphasis on facial care, as the fastest-growing subcategory. We believe this strategy is wise, given that the facial care segment features both faster growth and higher margins than the body care segment, in which Beiersdorf, and its flagship brand Nivea, have been historically over-indexed.

Narrow-moat Beiersdorf delivered a strong set of first-half 2023 results, ahead of FactSet consensus and our expectations. Growth momentum in the first quarter was maintained (12.3% organic sales growth for the first half versus 12.2% for the first quarter), with an excellent performance from the consumer segment (14.9% organic sales growth for the first half). The consumer EBIT margin also came in almost 200 basis points higher at 17%. This was partially driven by gross margin improvement (50 basis points). The performance of the Tesa business segment (17% of revenue) was more muted, delivering organic sales growth of 1.2% and a 70-basis-point decline in the EBIT margin to 18.4%.