Unilever PLC (LSE:ULVR) rose 1.4%, supported by positive comments from Barclays, which has high hopes for new chief executive Hein Schumacher.
The broker has upgraded the Marmite owner to 'overweight' from 'neutral' and raised its price target to 4,600p.
“There's much to do and it will take time but new CEO Hein Schumacher comes across as a real operator who understands the challenges.” it said.
“To us Hein Schumacher is a breath of fresh air with a coherent plan and a real mandate to execute it,” it added.
Barclays said the new CEO's vision “inspires confidence”, while the refreshing of the management team was “necessary and healthy”.
Things might not get better quickly but Barclays feels confident that there is urgency and clarity in the new CEO’s plans, even if the content of the plan was not new.
“There were a number of things that we heard from Hein Schumacher that have come straight out of the P&G playbook,” Barclays said, with Unilever now talking about brand superiority across every vector, not just technical superiority.