Unilever vs Reckitt, side by side
Open a British cupboard and you will find both. Unilever is the broader giant - food, beauty, personal care and home care across the globe, with a big emerging-markets business. Reckitt is tighter: health, hygiene and nutrition brands like Dettol, Nurofen and Enfamil, aiming for fewer categories held more strongly.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on quality and income, and weakest on value.
On our factor screen it looks strongest on income and quality, and weakest on growth.
The numbers, side by side
| Measure |  Unilever |  Reckitt |
|---|---|---|
| Price | £47.43 | £52.40 |
| Market cap: The company's total value on the stock market - share price times the number of shares. Big = 'large-cap', small = 'small-cap'. | £102.13B | £33.28B |
| P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 21.4 | 11.8 |
| Div yield: Dividend yield: the yearly dividend as a percentage of the share price - roughly the income you'd earn just from dividends. | 3.4% | 4.1% |
| Revenue growth | 0.5% | -8.2% |
| 1Y: How much the share price has moved over the past year. | -2% | -10% |
More measures
| Forward P/E: Price-to-earnings: the share price divided by yearly profit per share. Lower can mean cheaper; higher often means investors expect fast growth. | 16.1 | 14.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Net margin | 18.3% | 21.1% |
| ROE | 31.9% | 48.0% |
| Beta: How bumpy the share price is versus the whole market. Above 1 swings more than the market; below 1 is calmer. It's about the ride, not whether it goes up or down. | 0.45 | 0.25 |
The bolder figure is simply the larger of the two - higher is not automatically good (a higher P/E means more expectation in the price; a higher beta means bigger swings).
How they differ
Unilever is roughly 3x the size of Reckitt by market value. On our factor screen Unilever currently screens higher on growth, while Reckitt screens higher on income and value. Unilever trades on the higher P/E (21.4 vs 11.8), so more expectation is already built into its price.
Descriptive only - how the two compare on today's data, never a verdict on either.
Unilever, in one line
Unilever is a global giant behind everyday household staples like Dove soap, Hellmann’s mayonnaise, and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Read the full Unilever explainer →Reckitt, in one line
Reckitt is a household name behind everyday essentials like Dettol, Nurofen, and Durex that people keep buying regardless of the economic weather.
Read the full Reckitt explainer →What to weigh
If dividend income matters to you, the yields differ (3.4% Unilever vs 4.1% Reckitt). These are facts to understand, not a verdict - read each full explainer before deciding anything.
Common questions
Why do investors treat these as 'defensive' shares?
People keep washing, cleaning and eating in a downturn, so branded-staples revenue tends to hold up better than most - though it still faces supermarket own-brands and cost inflation.
What is the main thing that differs day to day?
Breadth. Unilever's results blend dozens of categories and currencies; Reckitt's hang on a shorter list of health and hygiene brands, so single-brand problems (or wins) show up more visibly in its numbers.