The performance highlights of the Top 25 publicly traded global consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies for the year 2017 have been confirmed in the latest research from GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
The completed analysis reveals a number of interesting insights. Nestle, Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) remained in the top three company positions in terms of market cap (M cap) with Nestle wrestling the No 1 position from P&G. AB InBev and Nestle witnessed a 19.4% and 18.2% growth in M cap, respectively. However, P&G’s M cap mostly remained unchanged at the end of 2017.
GlobalData’s analysis of each business in the Top 25 is based on a number of key metrics including their market cap (M Cap), price-earnings ratio (P/E), earnings per share (EPS), enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EV/EBITDA), return on capital employed (RoCE %), return on assets (ROA), research and development as a percentage of sales (R&D/Sales %) and operating margin, to help assess the health of the top players.
In terms of revenue, 40% of the top 10 companies including Kraft Heinz, Kweichow Moutai, AB InBev and Diageo showed positive growth, whereas the remaining 60% remained mostly unchanged. Kraft Heinz recorded the most robust growth with a 44.4% increase on the previous year’s revenue.
The Top 25 had an average operating margin of over 22.3%, with good operating margin returns for AB InBev at 28.3%, Constellation Brands at 32.7% and Diageo at 29.7%.
The EV/ EBITDA average for the group was 25.8, with seven companies ranking better than the average. The average P/E for the group was 32.1 (excluding AB InBev, which had a P/E ratio of 171) with 10 companies above the average. Associated British Foods ranked lowest among the companies in the group with P/E and EV/ EBITDA of 19.1 and 14.1, respectively.
The EPS average for the group was US$2.7, with 13 companies above the average. Constellation Brands, L’Oreal, Kimberly-Clark, and Pernod Ricard recorded higher EPS, whereas Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, Wuliangye Yibin, Jiangsu Yanghe, and AB InBev recorded lower EPS within the group.
