Unilever PLC Stock (ULVR, UL): Graze Sale, Magnum Ice Cream Spin‑Off and the December 2025 Outlook

Unilever PLC stock is heading into one of its most eventful weeks in years. Between the sale of snack brand Graze, a possible divestment of classic British names like Marmite and Bovril, and the imminent spin‑off of The Magnum Ice Cream Company, December 2025 is packed with catalysts for investors in both London‑listed ULVR and New York‑listed UL. ^[1]

As of the latest close, Unilever’s London shares traded at about 4,559p, giving the group a market capitalization of roughly £112 billion, a trailing P/E ratio around 22.5x and a dividend yield just above 3%. ^[2] The U.S. ADR UL sits near $60.3 per share. ^[3] For a company that generated more than €60 billion in revenue and over €6 billion in net profit in 2024, the question now is not “is Unilever big?” but “what kind of Unilever are investors about to own?” ^[4]

1. Unilever PLC share price snapshot: ULVR in London, UL in New York

London (ULVR, LSE)
- Last close: ≈ 4,559p
- 52‑week range: roughly 4,311p–4,910p
- Market cap: ~£112bn
- Trailing P/E: ≈22.6x
- Dividend yield: ~3.2–3.3% ^[5]
New York (UL, NYSE ADR)
- Last regular close (1 December 2025): $60.34, with recent extended‑hours trading slightly above $61. ^[6]

In other words, Unilever is priced as a classic defensive consumer‑staples stock: not cheap, not frothy, and paying a mid‑3% dividend. What’s unusual is the amount of corporate surgery happening in such a “boring” blue chip.

2. Fresh headline: Sale of Graze and what it signals

On 1 December 2025, Unilever announced it has signed an agreement to sell its Graze snacking business to Germany’s Katjes International, where Graze will join the Candy Kittens confectionery group. Financial terms were not disclosed, and closing is expected in the first half of 2026. ^[7]

Unilever bought Graze in 2019 as a better‑for‑you snacking play. Selling it now is not about the brand failing; it’s about a sharper strategic pivot:

Reuters notes the Graze deal fits a broader exit from parts of the foods portfolio as Unilever tries to concentrate capital and management attention on beauty, wellbeing and personal care. ^[8]

Marmite, Bovril and Colman’s: next on the block?

The Graze sale lands just days after multiple reports that Unilever is considering selling iconic British brands including Marmite, Bovril and Colman’s. ^[9]

According to Reuters and industry trade press:

The package of brands could generate around £200 million in annual revenue, and any sale price would be closely watched as a marker for how aggressively Unilever will prune non‑core food assets. ^[10]
Pot Noodle is explicitly not expected to be sold as part of this bundle. ^[11]
Unilever has declined to comment on the sale process, but industry analysts see it as consistent with a multi‑year trend of slimming down the “eclectic” food portfolio. ^[12]

For shareholders, the message is clear: the foods division is being actively reshaped, and “heritage” status alone is no longer a shield.

3. Magnum Ice Cream Company spin‑off: December 2025 catalyst

The largest structural change is the separation of the Ice Cream business into a new company: The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC).

Timeline and mechanics

From Unilever’s Q3 2025 statement and subsequent regulatory filings:

Unilever expects to complete the demerger of TMICC on 6 December 2025, after a timetable revision linked to the U.S. federal government shutdown. ^[13]
TMICC is expected to begin trading on 8 December 2025 on Euronext Amsterdam, the London Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker MICC. ^[14]
Eligible shareholders will receive one TMICC share for every five Unilever shares or ADSs held at the demerger record time. ^[15]
Unilever will retain about 19.9% of TMICC for up to five years, intending to sell this stake down gradually to cover separation costs and preserve balance‑sheet flexibility. ^[16]
A share consolidation of Unilever PLC will take place shortly after the demerger to keep headline EPS and DPS comparable before and after the spin‑off. ^[17]

In parallel, TMICC has already raised €3 billion via a multi‑tranche bond issue that was reportedly more than seven times oversubscribed, suggesting strong appetite for the standalone ice‑cream business. ^[18]

Unilever has repeatedly emphasized that the demerger and consolidation should not alter its dividend policy, which targets an attractive, sustainable payout of roughly 60% of underlying earnings per share. ^[19]

4. Financial performance: Q3 2025 shows steady growth and margin ambition

Unilever’s latest published numbers are for Q3 2025, released on 23 October. ^[20]

Key takeaways:

Underlying sales growth (USG) was 3.9%, composed of 1.5% volume growth and 2.4% pricing. Excluding Ice Cream, USG was 4.0%, with 1.7% volume.
The company’s “Power Brands”, which account for about 78% of turnover, grew 4.4%, again with positive volumes and prices.
Turnover was €14.7 billion, down 3.5% year‑on‑year, largely due to negative currency effects and prior disposals.
The quarterly dividend was set at €0.4528, 3% higher than in Q3 2024.
Management reconfirmed full‑year 2025 guidance for USG in the 3–5% range, with second‑half growth expected to beat the first half.
Unilever expects H2 2025 underlying operating margin to be at least 18.5%, or 19.5% excluding Ice Cream—a material step up versus H2 2024. ^[21]

The productivity programme launched in 2024 remains ahead of plan, targeting €800 million in savings by 2026, with around €650 million expected to be delivered by the end of 2025 and restructuring costs trimmed to about 1.2% of turnover this year. ^[22]

Segment‑wise, Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care and Foods all delivered more than 3% underlying sales growth in Q3, with particularly strong momentum in Dove, Vaseline, Hellmann’s, Cif and Domestos. Emerging markets growth improved, with Indonesia returning to double‑digit growth, while Latin America remained a weak spot. ^[23]

5. Strategy: from “eclectic food” to beauty, wellbeing and premium home care

The portfolio reshaping visible in 2025 is not coming out of nowhere.

Back in 2024, Unilever laid out a Growth Action Plan (GAP), promising mid‑single‑digit sales growth and gradual margin expansion, heavily leaning into Beauty & Wellbeing and Personal Care as higher‑growth, higher‑valuation categories. ^[24]
The Q3 2025 statement reinforces this, explicitly describing a future Unilever with “more Beauty, Wellbeing and Personal Care,” a tilt toward premium segments and a geographic focus on the US and India. ^[25]

The pattern of deals lines up with that story:

Sales: The Vegetarian Butcher, Unox, Zwan, and now Graze, with Marmite/Bovril/Colman’s under review. ^[26]
Acquisitions: Selective buys in premium personal care and wellbeing, such as Dr. Squatch, plus continued investment behind prestige beauty brands. ^[27]

Taken together, Unilever is evolving from a broadly “food plus household” conglomerate into something closer to a beauty‑and‑home‑care powerhouse that still owns some food brands.

6. Leadership shake‑up: new CEO and CFO to execute the plan

The strategy shift has been accompanied by notable changes at the top.

In February 2025, Unilever abruptly removed CEO Hein Schumacher and promoted then‑CFO Fernando Fernandez to the top job, with the board (which includes activist investor Nelson Peltz) stressing the need to accelerate execution of the turnaround. ^[28]
Fernandez previously led the Beauty & Wellbeing business, which fits neatly with the pivot towards higher‑margin personal care and beauty categories. ^[29]
In September 2025, Unilever made interim CFO Srinivas Phatak its permanent Chief Financial Officer, elevating a long‑standing company veteran with experience across Unilever’s finance operations and its Indian subsidiary. ^[30]

This refreshed leadership team will be judged on whether it can deliver the promised faster growth, higher margins and cleaner portfolio—without sacrificing Unilever’s reputation for steady dividends.

7. Analyst views and stock forecasts: a split verdict

London‑listed ULVR (LSE)

MarketBeat’s latest compilation of City analysts (as of early December 2025) shows: ^[31]

Consensus rating:Hold (based on 6 analysts)
- 3 Buy ratings
- 3 Sell ratings
Average 12‑month price target:4,690p, implying ~2.9% upside from 4,559p.
Target range:
- High: 5,700p (J.P. Morgan, Overweight, target raised from 5,400p)
- Low: 3,800p (Jefferies, Underperform)

Recent notable moves include:

J.P. Morgan Cazenove lifting its target to 5,700p with an Overweight rating.
UBS reiterating Sell at 4,120p.
Royal Bank of Canada keeping Underperform around 3,900p.
Berenberg sticking with Buy and a 5,570p target. ^[32]

In other words, the London analyst community is deeply split: some see a cleaner, higher‑margin Unilever emerging post‑TMICC; others worry about near‑term EPS dilution and execution risk.

New York ADR UL (NYSE)

For UL, MarketBeat’s U.S. universe paints a slightly more upbeat picture: ^[33]

Consensus rating:Moderate Buy based on 10 analysts
- 2 Sell
- 2 Hold
- 6 Buy / Strong Buy
Average 12‑month price target:$73, implying around 21% upside from the latest $60.34 close.
A separate Fintel‑based analysis cited by Nasdaq puts the average target at roughly $68.06, or about 13% upside, highlighting that different data providers cluster in the high‑60s to low‑70s band. ^[34]

JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, DZ Bank and others have either upgraded or initiated with positive stances since early 2025, while Jefferies and some quant‑driven services remain more cautious. ^[35]

8. Bull vs bear case for Unilever PLC stock in December 2025

The bullish argument

Supporters of Unilever PLC stock tend to emphasize:

A higher‑margin, more focused core
Once TMICC is spun off and lower‑growth food brands are sold, Unilever will be more concentrated in higher‑margin beauty, wellbeing and home‑care categories. Management is already guiding to high‑teens operating margins and has delivered sequential margin improvement through its productivity programme. ^[36]
Proven pricing power and resilient demand
Q3’s 3.9% underlying sales growth came with positive volumes, especially in developed markets like North America, suggesting that growth is not just inflation‑driven pricing. ^[37]
Defensive income profile
With a mid‑3% dividend yield and a long history of uninterrupted dividends, Unilever remains attractive to income‑seeking investors, particularly in volatile macro environments. ^[38]
Supportive broker and bond‑market signals
Upgrades from banks like J.P. Morgan and the strong investor demand for TMICC’s debut bond deal are read by some as votes of confidence in the transformation story. ^[39]

The bearish argument

Sceptics focus on a different set of issues:

EPS dilution and demerger complexity
Removing Ice Cream will likely reduce group earnings in the short term. Analysts such as UBS and Jefferies flag that, at a roughly 20x earnings multiple, the stock could derate if post‑spin growth disappoints. ^[40]
Execution risk around the TMICC spin‑off and share consolidation
The demerger‑listing‑consolidation sequence over a few trading days in December introduces the potential for short‑term volatility and mispricing, including confusion around adjusted EPS and DPS figures. ^[41]
Macro and regional pressures
Q3 highlighted weakness in Latin America and still‑muted growth in parts of Asia, at a time when emerging markets are supposed to be a key long‑term engine. ^[42]
Category disruption
While TMICC will be separate, Unilever will still hold nearly 20% of it for several years. That stake, along with remaining food brands, is exposed to changing consumer habits (healthier diets, GLP‑1 weight‑loss drugs, etc.) that may weigh on indulgent categories like ice cream. ^[43]

The result is a market that broadly agrees Unilever is a high‑quality franchise, but not on whether that justifies its current valuation given the moving parts.

9. What to watch in the coming days and into 2026

As of 2 December 2025, the key watch‑points for Unilever PLC stock are:

Pricing and trading of TMICC around 8 December
The initial valuation of Magnum Ice Cream Company and how its shares trade in Amsterdam, London and New York will heavily influence how investors mark Unilever’s remaining stake and the “new Unilever” multiple. ^[44]
Impact of the share consolidation on short‑term trading
Noise around adjusted EPS/DPS figures and index weightings can drive temporary volatility. How transparent and consistent Unilever is in its communications will matter. ^[45]
Formal decisions on Marmite, Bovril and Colman’s
A confirmed sale—plus the price and buyer—would tell the market how aggressively Unilever is willing to divest and what multiples it can fetch for mature food brands. ^[46]
Updated 2026 guidance for growth and margins
Investors will look for post‑spin targets (e.g., a 4–6% USG ambition and sustained high‑teens margins) and evidence that Unilever can keep volume growth positive without leaning excessively on pricing. ^[47]
Dividend policy and capital allocation
Confirmation that Unilever maintains its payout ratio, and clarity on how quickly it intends to sell down the TMICC stake and recycle proceeds, will be central to the investment case. ^[48]

10. FAQ: Unilever PLC stock in December 2025

Is Unilever still a “defensive” stock after the ice‑cream spin‑off?
Structurally, yes: most of Unilever’s earnings will still come from daily‑use categories like personal care, home care and pantry staples. The portfolio will, however, be more tilted toward beauty and wellbeing, which tend to carry higher margins and slightly more cyclicality than basic foods. ^[49]

How will the TMICC shares appear in my portfolio?
If you hold Unilever shares or ADRs at the demerger record date, you are expected to receive one TMICC share for every five Unilever shares/ADRs, in addition to your consolidated Unilever holding. Brokers will typically handle this automatically, but timing can vary by platform. ^[50]

Will Unilever cut its dividend because of the spin‑off?
Management has repeatedly stated that the demerger and share consolidation are not expected to change its dividend policy. Q3’s dividend was increased by 3% year‑on‑year, and the company has signalled it expects to pay the Q4 2025 dividend in full. Future dividends, however, always depend on earnings, cash flow and board decisions. ^[51]

What is the current analyst consensus on Unilever PLC stock?

London‑listed ULVR: consensus Hold, average target 4,690p (about 3% above the current price) with a wide spread between bullish and bearish brokers. ^[52]
U.S. UL ADR: consensus Moderate Buy, average target around $73 (roughly 20% above current levels), with separate Fintel data clustering in the high‑$60s. ^[53]