Diageo PLC (LSE:DGE) saw its price target clipped by Deutsche Bank, with the German financial institution taking a “more cautious” view of the London-listed spirits group.
Deutsche has a ‘Sell’ rating for the Guinness and Smirnoff parent company, and, with a new target of £23.00 (down from £24.00), the bank sees around 14% downside to the current Diageo price of 2,672p.
“Our estimates now reflect a more cautious view on the US and Europe and we now expect a meaningful deterioration in North America organic sales growth in 2H,” Deutsche analyst Mitch Collett said in a note. “We recognise this is inconsistent with FY24 company guidance.
“Given ongoing headwinds and limited visibility, we believe it would be prudent to withdraw medium-term organic revenue growth guidance of 5-7% at the earliest opportunity.”
Diageo’s half-year results, released in January, previously revealed a 23% decline in Latin America & Caribbean (LAC) sales.
The owner of Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff said sales in the first half ending December fell 1.4% to US$11.0 billion, with organic sales down 0.6%, driven by a 23% decline in LAC.
Excluding LAC, organic net sales grew 2.5%, driven by Asia Pacific, Africa and Europe, partially offset by a 1.5% decline in North America.
Reported operating profit in the first six months declined 11.1% to US$3.3 billion and reported operating profit margin contracted 329 basis points (bps) due to lower organic operating margin and a negative impact from exceptional operating items.