Should You Buy Haleon PLC (HLN) Today? Analysis, Price Targets, and 2026 Outlook.
Conclusion
Buy
Latest Price
10.310
1 Day change
-1.06%
52 Week Range
11.420
Analysis Updated At
2026/01/29
Buy for a long-term beginner right now. The chart is in a clean uptrend (bullish moving-average stack), options positioning is strongly call-leaning on open interest, and Wall Street sentiment has recently turned more positive via multiple upgrades/target hikes. While the latest reported quarter shows weak revenue and net income, improving gross margin plus broad analyst confidence makes HLN a reasonable long-term entry today for an impatient investor.
Technical Analysis
Price/Trend: HLN closed at 10.31 (down ~1.1% on the day). Despite the small pullback, trend structure remains bullish with SMA_5 > SMA_20 > SMA_200 (classic uptrend confirmation).
Momentum: MACD histogram is positive (0.0308) but contracting, suggesting upside momentum is still present but cooling—more consistent with consolidation than a breakdown. RSI(6) at ~58 is neutral-to-mildly bullish (not overbought).
Levels: Pivot 10.154 is the key near-term support. If it holds, next resistance is R1 10.482 then R2 10.685. Downside supports: S1 9.825, S2 9.622.
Pattern/near-term bias: The candlestick-pattern peer analysis implies a modest negative drift over the next day/week/month (around -0.8% to -1.2%), which fits a near-term consolidation scenario inside a broader uptrend.
Intellectia Proprietary Trading Signals
- [AI Stock Picker](module://ai_stock_pick): No signal on given stock today.
- [SwingMax](module://swingmax): No signal on given stock today.
Options Data
Bullish
Open Interest Put-Call Ratio
Bullish
Option Volume Put-Call Ratio
Sentiment from positioning: Open-interest put/call ratio of 0.12 is strongly call-skewed, typically signaling bullish positioning/expectations.
Sentiment from activity: Put/call volume ratio of 0.81 is mildly call-favoring (not extreme), suggesting day-to-day flow is not euphoric.
Volatility: 30D IV ~20.21 vs historical vol ~20.63 with low IV percentile (~19) / IV rank (~7.6) implies options are relatively cheap and the market is not pricing major near-term moves—consistent with steady, long-term-style positioning.
Liquidity note: Volume is modest (56 contracts) so signals are directionally useful but not highly definitive.
Technical Summary
Sell
3
Buy
8
Positive Catalysts
- Strong shift in sell-side tone: multiple upgrades (HSBC to Buy; Barclays to Overweight) and raised targets (Jefferies, Morgan Stanley, Berenberg), plus Goldman adding HLN to its European Conviction List.
- Hedge funds net buying: reported buying amount up ~142% over the last quarter.
- Higher gross margin in latest quarter (improving profitability quality even with softer revenue).
Neutral/Negative Catalysts
- Latest quarter (2025/Q2) showed revenue down -5.33% YoY and net income down -100% YoY (reported as 0), which can weigh on confidence until the next results/reset.
- Near-term momentum is cooling (MACD contracting) and pattern-based outlook suggests mild short-term downside drift.
- No recent news catalysts in the past week to immediately re-rate the stock upward.
- Insider activity is neutral (no supportive insider-buying trend recently).
Financial Performance
Latest provided quarter: 2025/Q2.
- Revenue: 2.627B, down -5.33% YoY (top-line contraction).
- Net income: 0, down -100% YoY (material reported profitability weakness this quarter).
- EPS: 0.09, up +200% YoY (improvement in per-share earnings metric despite weak net income figure, suggesting potential mix/one-offs or accounting differences).
- Gross margin: 64.51%, up +4.69% YoY (clear margin expansion, a constructive long-term signal if it persists).
Growth
Profitability
Efficiency
Analyst Ratings and Price Target Trends
Recent trend: clearly improving. In January 2026 alone, HSBC upgraded to Buy (PT 430 GBp) and Barclays upgraded to Overweight (PT 420 GBp). Jefferies reiterated Buy and raised PT to 450 GBp; Morgan Stanley raised PT to 420 GBp; Berenberg raised PT to 517 GBp; Goldman added HLN to its European Conviction List.
Wall Street pros: expectation of returning to stronger/best-in-class sales growth, improving inventory dynamics, and greater emerging-market penetration; broad clustering of Buy/Overweight-type views.
Wall Street cons: the market will likely want confirmation via upcoming results (next noted fiscal-year results timing mentioned as Feb 25 by Jefferies) given the latest quarter’s revenue decline and weak net income.
Wall Street analysts forecast HLN stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for HLN is 13.44 USD with a low forecast of 13.44 USD and a high forecast of 13.44 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
1 Analyst Rating
Wall Street analysts forecast HLN stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for HLN is 13.44 USD with a low forecast of 13.44 USD and a high forecast of 13.44 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
1 Buy
0 Hold
0 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 10.420
Low
13.44
Averages
13.44
High
13.44
Current: 10.420
Low
13.44
Averages
13.44
High
13.44
Barclays
Warren Ackerman
Equal Weight -> Overweight
upgrade
$380 -> $420
AI Analysis
2026-01-23
Reason
Barclays
Warren Ackerman
Price Target
$380 -> $420
AI Analysis
2026-01-23
upgrade
Equal Weight -> Overweight
Reason
Barclays analyst Warren Ackerman upgraded Haleon to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of 420 GBp, up from 380 GBp. The firm adjusted ratings in the European consumer staples group after introducing a new framework for the sector.
HSBC
Hold
to
Buy
upgrade
£430
2026-01-21
Reason
HSBC
Price Target
£430
2026-01-21
upgrade
Hold
to
Buy
Reason
HSBC upgraded Haleon to Buy from Hold with a 430 GBp price target.
Unlock Full Analyst Thesis， Get the complete breakdown of rating reason for HLN
