Danone Q1 sales beat forecasts, keeps goals
Danone said on Tuesday that underlying first-quarter sales rose 3.5 percent, beating expectations and lifted by baby food sales in Asia and strong demand for dairy products in North America.
The world's largest yoghurt maker, with brands including Actimel and Activia, said it expected economic conditions to remain volatile in emerging markets, however, and kept its full-year sales and profitability goals unchanged.
The quarterly performance beat the company-compiled average of analyst estimates of 3.2 percent like-for-like growth in group sales.
Total sales, which include the effects of foreign exchange rate fluctuations, reached 5.306 billion euros ($6.01 billion), a decline of 3 percent on a reported basis.
Danone kept its 2016 target for like-for-like sales growth of between 3 and 5 percent. It stuck to a forecast for a solid rise in its 2016 operating margin from 12.91 percent in 2015. ($1 = 0.8833 euros)
