Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Estee Lauder, Campbell Soup and United Natural Foods

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – Jan 05, 2018 – Today, Zacks Equity Research discusses the Industry: Consumer Staples, Part 2, including Procter & Gamble Co. (PG), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Estee Lauder (EL), Campbell Soup (CPB) and United Natural Foods (UNFI).

Industry: Consumer Staples, Part 2

Link: https://www.zacks.com/commentary/142789/will-strategic-efforts-fuel-consumer-staples-growth-in-2018

The Consumer Staples sector seems well-placed for 2018 with rising consumer confidence, healthy consumer spending, increased business investments and an improved labor market helping stocks in this space. Stocks in the sector lagged the broader market last year, but the sector’s stock market performance wasn’t too bad: +11.6% in 2017, roughly half of the +20.2% gain for the S&P 500 index.

Companies in the Consumer Staples sector stand to benefit from the recent tax reforms, which should help these stocks. That said, many of these companies are multinational and earn substantial proportions of their revenues beyond the U.S. shores, which means they already pay significantly lower taxes already related to previous statutory rates. Sectors that substantially operate domestically stand to benefit from the tax law changes.

Companies in this sector remain focused on undertaking efforts to resonate with consumers’ changing demands in order to fuel growth.

So let’s take a look at the strategies that position the consumer staples stocks for growth in 2018 as well.

Factors Ruling the Consumer Staples Space

Focus on Innovations

Innovation remains the guiding principle of consumer staples companies as it enables them to enhance brand appeal and capture market share across all regions and categories. Thus, companies put a lot of thrust on innovation to upgrade their brands and create differentiated value propositions. Notably, constant innovations supported by efficient marketing and commercialization are likely to keep benefiting consumer staples companies.

Novelty has been a driving force for consumer product giants like The Procter & Gamble Co. and Colgate-Palmolive and cosmetic big-wigs like Estee Lauder. These companies constantly come up with new products that suit changing consumer trends, to tap demand and boost revenues. Also, major food companies like Smucker and Campbell Soup, and even alcohol stocks like Constellation Brands have been adding new products to gain competitive advantage and augment market share.

Transition to Health and Wellness Products

As consumer preference is the life blood of Consumer Staples, companies have to adapt to evolving trends to stay strong in the industry. Currently, consumer staples companies are shifting focus to natural and organic products, given rising demand for health and wellness offerings.

This is the case with almost all industries in the sector. In the food industry, consumers are opting for healthier and nutritious rather than packaged food products, in view of increasing health consciousness and rising obesity concerns. Thus, companies like Campbell Soup and United Natural Foods, among others, have taken to rolling out healthy and fresh products to expand in the booming organic food space.

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Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. (The) (EL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Campbell Soup Company (CPB) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Procter & Gamble Company (The) (PG) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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