Drinks brands giant Diageo plc (LON:DGE) left its organic net sales growth guidance unchanged after making a solid start to the current fiscal year.
In a trading statement issued ahead of today's annual general meeting, Diageo said it continues to expect organic net sales growth to be toward the mid-point of the 4% to 6% range and organic operating profit to grow by roughly one percentage point ahead of organic net sales.
“Due to a strong prior year comparable, for the first half we expect organic operating profit growth to be in-line with or slightly behind organic net sales growth; however, we would not be immune from significant changes to global trade policy and continue to monitor this closely," the company said.
Liberum Capital Markets noted that the guidance on the operating profit is a tad below consensus.
“Consensus is in line with [Diageo's] guidance for top line, expecting 5.3% organic growth, though the organic operating profit growth appears to be some 50bps [basis points] ahead at 6.86%,” Liberum said.
“Shares could be a touch softer today,” it predicted and in early trade, at least, it was on the money as the shares were off 15p at