Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday.

Several other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. B. Riley lifted their price target on Herbalife from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Herbalife from $9.50 to $13.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.40.

Herbalife Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of HLF stock opened at $6.98 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $7.49 and a 200 day moving average of $9.35. The stock has a market cap of $697.78 million, a P/E ratio of 5.09, a P/E/G ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 1.19. Herbalife has a twelve month low of $6.59 and a twelve month high of $15.66.

Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.33 billion. Herbalife had a negative return on equity of 18.69% and a net margin of 1.63%. Herbalife’s quarterly revenue was down 2.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.74 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Herbalife will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Juan Miguel Mendoza purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 9th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $7.11 per share, for a total transaction of $71,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 120,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $853,200. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.94% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Herbalife

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in Herbalife by 5,249.2% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 138,599 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,390,000 after buying an additional 136,008 shares in the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Herbalife in the 1st quarter valued at $1,397,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in shares of Herbalife by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 82,287 shares of the company’s stock valued at $827,000 after purchasing an additional 3,647 shares during the last quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA lifted its stake in shares of Herbalife by 128.3% in the 2nd quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA now owns 5,124,526 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,244,000 after purchasing an additional 2,879,603 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of Herbalife by 2,053.6% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,977,155 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,885,346 shares during the last quarter.

Herbalife Company Profile

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.