Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on HELE. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of Helen of Troy from $71.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Helen of Troy from $79.00 to $69.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $84.00 target price on shares of Helen of Troy in a report on Monday, October 7th.

Helen of Troy Stock Performance

Shares of HELE stock traded down $2.79 on Monday, reaching $58.99. The stock had a trading volume of 447,224 shares, compared to its average volume of 500,206. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.92. Helen of Troy has a 1 year low of $48.05 and a 1 year high of $127.83. The stock has a market cap of $1.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $65.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.83.

Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The company reported $2.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.60 by $0.07. Helen of Troy had a return on equity of 9.13% and a net margin of 6.05%. The business had revenue of $530.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $532.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.79 earnings per share. Helen of Troy’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Helen of Troy will post 6.46 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Helen of Troy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Helen of Troy by 30,278.8% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,069,940 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,176,000 after buying an additional 1,066,418 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in shares of Helen of Troy by 116.0% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 57,716 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,570,000 after acquiring an additional 30,993 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Helen of Troy by 37.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 124,834 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,721,000 after acquiring an additional 34,318 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Helen of Troy by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 48,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,923,000 after buying an additional 2,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Helen of Troy by 7.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 83,889 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,189,000 after buying an additional 5,920 shares during the last quarter.

About Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy Limited provides various consumer products in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company operates in two segments: Home & Outdoor and Beauty & Wellness. The Home & Outdoor segment offers food storage containers, kitchen utensils for cooking and preparing salads, fruits, vegetables and meats, graters, slicers and choppers, baking essentials, kitchen organization, bath, cleaning, infant and toddler products, and coffee preparation tools and electronics; and insulated beverageware, including bottles, travel tumblers, drinkware, mugs, food and lunch containers, insulated totes, soft coolers, outdoor kitchenware, and accessories.