Hsbc Global Res Downgrades Haleon (NYSE:HLN) to Hold

Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Haleon (NYSE:HLN) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

HLN has been the subject of a number of other reports. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Haleon in a report on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Haleon from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Haleon from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Haleon presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $10.95.

Haleon Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of HLN stock opened at $10.55 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $47.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.28. Haleon has a one year low of $7.89 and a one year high of $10.80. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $9.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.58.

Haleon (NYSE:HLN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $3.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.38 billion. Haleon had a return on equity of 14.76% and a net margin of 10.85%. Analysts predict that Haleon will post 0.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Haleon Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 5th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 25th will be paid a $0.1166 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 25th. This is a positive change from Haleon’s previous — dividend of $0.05. This represents a dividend yield of 1.6%. Haleon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.97%.

Institutional Trading of Haleon

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HLN. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Haleon by 67.5% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 15,328,325 shares of the company’s stock valued at $146,232,000 after buying an additional 6,175,835 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Haleon by 5.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 104,918,269 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,110,035,000 after purchasing an additional 5,768,117 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Haleon in the fourth quarter worth about $45,110,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Haleon in the fourth quarter worth about $42,193,000. Finally, Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich acquired a new position in shares of Haleon during the 4th quarter worth about $39,628,000. 6.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Haleon Company Profile

Haleon plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and sale of various consumer healthcare products in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides oral health products, such as toothpastes, mouth washes, and denture care products under the Sensodyne, Polident, Parodontax, Biotene brands; and vitamins, minerals, and supplements under Centrum, Emergen-C, Caltrate brands.