Haleon plc (NYSE:HLN) Plans Dividend Increase - $0.12 Per Share

Haleon plc (NYSE:HLN - Get Free Report) announced a -- dividend on Monday, March 3rd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 25th will be paid a dividend of 0.1166 per share on Thursday, June 5th. This represents a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 25th. This is an increase from Haleon's previous -- dividend of $0.05.

Haleon has a payout ratio of 43.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Haleon to earn $0.49 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.23 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.9%.

Haleon Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HLN traded up $0.10 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $10.68. The company had a trading volume of 9,709,255 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,480,473. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.84. Haleon has a fifty-two week low of $7.89 and a fifty-two week high of $10.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44.

Haleon (NYSE:HLN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $3.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.38 billion. Haleon had a net margin of 10.85% and a return on equity of 14.76%. On average, research analysts expect that Haleon will post 0.43 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Haleon

A hedge fund recently bought a new stake in Haleon stock. Brighton Jones LLC acquired a new position in shares of Haleon plc (NYSE:HLN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 19,579 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $187,000. 6.67% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on HLN shares. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Haleon from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Haleon from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $10.95.

About Haleon

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.