Haleon (NYSE:HLN) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Hsbc Global Res

Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Haleon (NYSE:HLN) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released 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 research report on Wednesday. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Haleon from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Haleon from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.95.

Haleon Price Performance

Shares of Haleon stock opened at $10.55 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $9.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.85. Haleon has a 52 week low of $7.89 and a 52 week high of $10.80. The stock has a market cap of $47.74 billion, a PE ratio of 31.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.28.

Haleon (NYSE:HLN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter. Haleon had a net margin of 10.85% and a return on equity of 14.76%. The company had revenue of $3.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.38 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Haleon will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Haleon Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a — dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 5th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.1166 per share. This represents a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 25th. This is an increase from Haleon’s previous — dividend of $0.05. Haleon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.97%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Haleon

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Haleon by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 108,827,814 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,038,217,000 after purchasing an additional 3,909,545 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew 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 worth $146,232,000 after acquiring an additional 6,175,835 shares during the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Haleon by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 8,624,149 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,274,000 after acquiring an additional 161,865 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Haleon by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,630,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,793,000 after acquiring an additional 58,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Haleon by 18.3% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,014,903 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,382,000 after acquiring an additional 930,701 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 6.67% of the company’s stock.

About Haleon

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.