By Adria Calatayud

Danone is scheduled to report results for the fourth quarter and 2024 on Wednesday. Here is what you need to know.

SALES FORECAST: Analysts expect the French food company behind Activia yogurt and Evian water to report fourth-quarter sales of 6.59 billion euros ($6.90 billion) and like-for-like growth of 4.2%, according to consensus estimates provided by the company. For the same period a year earlier, the company reported sales of 6.66 billion euros with like-for-like sales growth of 5.1%.

PROFIT FORECAST: Danone is expected to report a full-year recurring net profit--which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--of 2.29 billion euros, according to the same consensus. For 2023, the company reported 2.28 billion euros.

Shares in Danone fell 0.3% during the fourth quarter of 2024, but the stock rose 6.8% in the year to date.

WHAT TO WATCH

--Danone is likely to have ended 2024 on a strong note and, heading into 2025, investors' focus will be on the extent to which Danone's sales volumes can keep rising as pricing picks up, analysts at JPMorgan said in a note. The company is expected to post like-for-like sales growth of 3.8% in 2025, according to consensus estimates provided by Visible Alpha. Analysts at Citi said their estimate on Danone's sales growth of 3.9% in 2025 is predicated on pricing returning to more positive dynamics by the second quarter.

--In a world in which consumers are more aware of health concerns after the Covid-19 pandemic, Danone is on the right side of the debate and this is translating into significant improvements in its sales volumes, analysts at Barclays said. Moreover, the company should gain from a boom in weight-loss drugs, the analysts said. However, investors will likely need data and evidence to support the idea that Danone is a beneficiary of weight-loss drugs in North America, the Citi analysts said.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 25, 2025 09:40 ET (14:40 GMT)

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