Nestle may walk away from margin guidance, says Jefferies

Jefferies keeps a Hold rating on Nestle after the company said Mark Schneider will step down and appointed Laurent Freixe as new CEO, effective September 1. After an increasingly difficult year, it’s not a total surprise to see a CEO change at Nestle, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says Freixe’s appointment “feels like a sign that the board wants to rebuild Nestle culture.” With rising commodity costs and what looks like the start of a pricing reset in Q2 results, combined with the CEO change, Jefferies says Nestle may walk away from its current 17.5%-18.5% fiscal 2025 margin guidance at the upcoming capital markets day on November 19.