Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF – Get Free Report)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday after Bank of America lowered their price target on the stock from $10.00 to $8.00. The stock had previously closed at $8.90, but opened at $8.70. Bank of America currently has an underperform rating on the stock. Herbalife shares last traded at $8.85, with a volume of 82,839 shares changing hands.
A number of other analysts also recently commented on HLF. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Herbalife from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Herbalife from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.30.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other Herbalife news, Director Rodica Macadrai bought 5,175 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $9.31 per share, for a total transaction of $48,179.25. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 12,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $118,385.96. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Rodica Macadrai acquired 5,175 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $9.31 per share, with a total value of $48,179.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 12,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $118,385.96. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Michael Johnson acquired 61,725 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 16th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $8.07 per share, for a total transaction of $498,120.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 603,707 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,871,915.49. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 0.66% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Trading of Herbalife
Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Herbalife by 1.1% in the third quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 67,737 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,348,000 after acquiring an additional 705 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Herbalife by 9.9% in the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 8,166 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,000 after buying an additional 736 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Herbalife by 6.5% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 12,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $374,000 after buying an additional 747 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lifted its stake in shares of Herbalife by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 26,496 shares of the company’s stock worth $404,000 after buying an additional 929 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Herbalife by 150.0% in the first quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 1,140 shares during the last quarter.
Herbalife Price Performance
The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $10.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $909.59 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.42 and a beta of 1.21.
Herbalife (NYSE:HLF – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.38 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.19 billion. Herbalife had a net margin of 2.81% and a negative return on equity of 19.56%. Herbalife’s revenue for the quarter was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.53 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Herbalife Ltd. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.
About Herbalife
Herbalife Ltd. provides health and wellness products in North America, Mexico, South and Central America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, China, and the Asia Pacific. It offers products in the areas of weight management; targeted nutrition; energy, sports, and fitness; outer nutrition; and literature and promotional items.