Why has Hindustan Unilever turned down in price?
Few days before result announcement, HUL picked up fancy and the media was abuzz with more expectations from this company in its 3rd quarter results. As its parent company gave hints of the Indian arm posting double digit growth, expectations flew high from the considerable 8.5 % increase which the market was in expectation till then. In expectation the stock priced soared and as soon as the result was announced as the reality got revealed.
Yet the stock held on to its previous lows at 374 levels giving a higher base formation. The stock is trending bullish on the weekly chart with high strength on its indicators. Whereas, the daily chart is non-trending since 7th Jan12. We have been running long position on the pullback with stop at 365.15, which the stock has managed to hold and the position has got a good add on too.
Now lets go into the fundamentals and see what is in store for this stock. Dec11 results saw sales increase at 15.79%, EPS growth of 19.46%, TTM EPS growing at about 20% year-on-year. The EPS rank of the stock is at 64.41, which shows that there are about 35.59% of companies in our ranking list are better than HUL in earnings growth. An EPS rank below 80 is not considered as a strong stock. The Price Relative Strength ranking for the stock is at 91.70 which are very good for the stock. Sales & Net Profit ranking is at 58.72, which is again a setback. HUL belongs to the Personal Care Industry group which has a A rating in our Industry Group rankings. This puts the Industry at the 87 93% slab, which indicates that the Industry is very strong both in its price relative strength and EPS growth. This gives a clear indication that HUL is not the strongest stock in the Industry group.
HULs Mutual Fund holdings rank has a D grade; it represents the 20-40% slab. This again indicates that the stock has lost its favor among Fund managers. For the December 2011 data fully available we have 33,82,965 shares on the buy side and 26,99,814 shares on the sell side with 156 funds participating in the stocks transactions for the month of December 2011. Quarterly record of Mutual Fund transactions in the stock are about 1.00 Crore shares on the buy side and above 81.50 Lakh shares on the sell side for the Oct-Dec quarter. Though the buyers are more in the stock, it does not show much strength.
If one of the best stocks of our country is not a favorite among fund managers and is not having a good rank from the Industry group which enjoys high rankings, which are the stocks that are good in this Industry? The top stocks as per current data are Godrej Industries, Godrej Consumer products and Marico have their EPS ranks above 80 and are comparatively very strong than HUL.
On the technical side HUL enjoys strength as the stock is in a bullish trend in the weekly chart. Long trades have already been established, while the stock is holding in the value zone now. There are chances for a move up along with the markets, but the next move up will attract more sellers than buyers in the stock.