Haleon plc (NYSE:HLN) Short Interest Update

Haleon plc (NYSE:HLN) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 18,140,000 shares, a growth of 6.8% from the December 15th total of 16,990,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,580,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days. Currently, 0.4% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HLN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Haleon from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. 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, UBS Group upgraded Haleon to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Haleon currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.95.

Haleon Price Performance

Shares of Haleon stock traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $9.24. 21,226,372 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,607,522. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $9.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.71. The stock has a market cap of $41.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.16, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.29. Haleon has a 12 month low of $7.89 and a 12 month high of $10.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.84.

Institutional Trading of Haleon

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HLN. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Haleon by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 104,918,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,110,035,000 after acquiring an additional 5,768,117 shares during the last quarter. Sculptor Capital LP raised its position in Haleon by 67.8% in the second quarter. Sculptor Capital LP now owns 8,887,098 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,407,000 after purchasing an additional 3,592,000 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Haleon by 8.6% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 41,753,987 shares of the company’s stock valued at $344,888,000 after purchasing an additional 3,307,009 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Haleon by 49.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 9,152,490 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,833,000 after purchasing an additional 3,046,841 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Haleon by 25.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,084,202 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,026,939 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors 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.