Short Interest in Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) Grows By 6.7%

Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) saw a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,240,000 shares, a growth of 6.7% from the August 31st total of 2,100,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 729,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.1 days. Currently, 9.9% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Helen of Troy

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HELE. CWM LLC lifted its stake in Helen of Troy by 374.6% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 280 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new position in Helen of Troy in the second quarter valued at about $28,000. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Helen of Troy in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in Helen of Troy by 153.7% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 576 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Helen of Troy in the first quarter worth about $201,000.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on HELE shares. Canaccord Genuity Group dropped their target price on Helen of Troy from $137.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Helen of Troy from $100.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Helen of Troy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, DA Davidson lowered shares of Helen of Troy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $139.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th.

Helen of Troy Stock Performance

NASDAQ HELE traded down $0.45 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $61.40. 339,598 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 426,104. Helen of Troy has a fifty-two week low of $48.05 and a fifty-two week high of $127.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.69, a PEG ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $55.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $82.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.87 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 9th. The company reported $0.99 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by ($0.60). Helen of Troy had a net margin of 7.82% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The business had revenue of $416.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $445.85 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.58 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 12.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Helen of Troy will post 6.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Helen of Troy announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 5th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 39.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Helen of Troy Company Profile

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.