Whittier Trust Co. Cuts Stake in Haleon plc (NYSE:HLN)

Whittier Trust Co. lessened its holdings in shares of Haleon plc (NYSE:HLN) by 73.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,020 shares of the company’s stock after selling 19,014 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Haleon were worth $67,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Procyon Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Haleon by 41.3% in the 4th quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 230,240 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,196,000 after purchasing an additional 67,329 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Haleon by 27.2% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 350,795 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,701,000 after buying an additional 74,970 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Haleon by 1,689.4% during the third quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 264,977 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,803,000 after buying an additional 250,169 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Haleon by 29.8% during the third quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 475,618 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,032,000 after buying an additional 109,217 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Haleon by 25.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,084,202 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,791,000 after acquiring an additional 1,026,939 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 6.67% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on HLN. HSBC reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Haleon in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. 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 cut shares of Haleon from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Haleon in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Haleon from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Six 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $10.95.

Haleon Price Performance

NYSE:HLN opened at $10.13 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $9.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.88. Haleon plc has a 1-year low of $7.99 and a 1-year high of $10.80. The firm has a market cap of $45.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.25. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $3.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.38 billion. Haleon had a return on equity of 14.76% and a net margin of 10.85%. Equities research analysts forecast that Haleon plc will post 0.43 EPS for the current year.

Haleon Increases Dividend

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

Haleon 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.