By Anthony Shevlin

Danone SA (BN.FR) said Friday that 2017 net profit rose on the back of strong growth in its waters and specialized nutrition divisions. The company says it is on track to accelerate toward its 2020 goals and targets double-digit recurring earnings per share growth in 2018 at constant exchange rates.

SALES: Danone posted full-year sales of 24.68 billion euros ($30.80 billion), in line with analyst expectations of EUR24.71 billion. Sales in the fourth quarter of EUR6.10 billion were also in line with expectations.

EARNINGS: Danone's net profit in 2017 was EUR2.45 billion, compared with EUR1.72 billion the year previous. Analysts had expected net profit of EUR2.14 billion.

WHAT WE WATCHED

GROWTH: Danone's like-for-like organic sales growth, which reflects the combined performance of Danone and WhiteWave, was in line with guidance at 2.5%, say analysts at Bernstein. Danone's waters division grew by over 10% in the fourth quarter on a like-for-like basis, and the company's specialized nutrition division rose 8.4% in the fourth quarter, with strong performance in China.

DAIRY AND PLANT-BASED PORTFOLIO: Analysts at Bryan Garnier say there are signs of improvement in Danone's dairy division, despite sales declining again in the fourth quarter. Dairy sales in North America were down 0.4%, but improved compared with the 2.2% decline in the previous quarter thanks to better trends in plant-based products. International dairy sales fell 0.3% but Europe showed a gradual improvement with signs of progress in Activia and Alpro, says Bryan Garnier.

Write to Anthony Shevlin at anthony.shevlin@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 16, 2018 09:23 ET (14:23 GMT)

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