Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. (NYSE: HLF) stock fell -4.85% on Friday to $27.27 against a previous-day closing price of $28.66. With 1.17 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 1.47 million shares. During the session, the Packaged Foods company that operates in wider Consumer Defensive sector, reached to the highest price of $28.62 whereas the lowest price it dropped to was $27.03. The 52-week range on HLF shows that it touched its highest point at $54.45 and its lowest point at $19.30 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $42.80. Beta for the stock currently stands at 1.12.
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Price Performance and Earnings:
Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of HLF was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 12.64%, but this was up by 38.36% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 15.60% while six-month performance fell -35.41%. The stock lost -42.83% in the past year, while it has lost -33.37% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for HLF yields 3.30 with Next year EPS estimates of 4.01. For the next quarter, that number is 0.82. This implies an EPS growth rate of 49.10% for this year and 16.42% for next year.
Float and Shares Shorts:
At present, 98.20 million HLF shares are outstanding with a float of 96.47 million shares on hand for trading. On Jul 14, 2022, short shares totaled 7.41 million, which was 6.84% higher than short shares on Jun 14, 2022. In addition to Dr. John O. Agwunobi M.B.A., M.P.H. as the firm’s Chairman & CEO, Mr. John G. DeSimone serves as its Pres.
Institutional Ownership:
Through their ownership of 93.03% of HLF’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have majority control over the company. Other institutions hold 57.23% of HLF, in contrast to 37.62% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 34.11%. As the largest shareholder in HLF with 10.11% of the stake, The Vanguard Group, Inc. holds 10,956,284 shares worth 10,956,284. A second-largest stockholder of HLF, Route One Investment Co. LP, holds 10,845,794 shares, controlling over 10.01% of the firm’s shares. The WindAcre Partnership LLC is the third largest shareholder in HLF, holding 10,003,500 shares or 9.23% stake. With a 2.65% stake in HLF, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index is the largest stakeholder. A total of 2,865,929 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Fidelity Series Intrinsic Opportu, which owns about 2.45% of HLF stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 2,650,000 shares valued at 54.19 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund holds 2.27% of the stake in HLF, owning 2,461,115 shares worth 50.33 million.
An Overview of Recent Financials:
Understanding a company as a customer does not mean you will understand it as an investor. The wise investor uses quantitative research to analyze metrics such as revenue, net income, and earnings. In its fiscal quarter reported on Jun 29, 2022, HLF reported revenue of $1.39B and operating income of $155.80M. Over the past year, revenue came in at $5.48B while operating income stood at $582.60M. It generated $86.50M net income for the quarter, which came to $340.30M over the last twelve months. The EBITDA in the recently reported quarter was $186.70M and diluted EPS was $0.88. EBITDA for the full year was $700.50M.
Analysts Ratings:
Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for HLF since 6 analysts follow the stock currently. There are 4 analysts who recommend BUY ratings, while 0 suggest SELL ratings. Of the remaining analysts, 2 believe that the stock is worth HOLDING, 0 give it an OVERWEIGHT rating, and 0 thinks that it’s UNDERWEIGHT. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With HLF analysts setting a high price target of $45.00 and a low target of $30.00, the average target price over the next 12 months is $37.25. Based on these targets, HLF could surge 65.02% to reach the target high and rise by 10.01% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a growth of 36.6% from current levels.
EPS: Estimates vs Actual
It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy. HLF will report FY 2022 earnings on 02/23/2023. Analysts have provided yearly estimates in a range of $3.80 being high and $3.10 being low. For HLF, this leads to a yearly average estimate of $3.45. The earnings surprise of a firm occurs when the actual results change from the consensus earnings estimate. Herbalife Nutrition Ltd. surprised analysts by $0.28 when it reported $0.96 EPS against a consensus estimate of $0.68. The surprise factor in the prior quarter was $0.07. Based on analyst estimates, the high estimate for the next quarter is $0.85 and the low estimate is $0.74. The average estimate for the next quarter is thus $0.78.
Summary of Insider Activity:
Insiders traded HLF stock several times over the past three months with 6 Buys and 0 Sells. In these transactions, 78,080 shares were bought while 0 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 31 while that of sell transactions has risen to 30 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 296,090 while 41,524 shares were sold.
