Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $680,000 Stock Position in Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) by 64.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 11,000 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 4,300 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Helen of Troy were worth $680,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in HELE. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its stake in Helen of Troy by 1.9% in the second quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,913,566 shares of the company’s stock valued at $177,464,000 after acquiring an additional 36,095 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Helen of Troy by 9.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,153,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $106,970,000 after purchasing an additional 102,767 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Helen of Troy by 2.7% in the second quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 666,256 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,789,000 after purchasing an additional 17,741 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Helen of Troy by 14.2% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 360,102 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,498,000 after purchasing an additional 44,758 shares during the period. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Helen of Troy during the second quarter worth $29,749,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Helen of Troy from $100.00 to $72.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Helen of Troy from $67.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $84.00 price target on shares of Helen of Troy in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Helen of Troy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th.

Helen of Troy Stock Performance

Shares of HELE stock opened at $65.47 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $60.93 and a 200-day moving average of $75.58. Helen of Troy Limited has a one year low of $48.05 and a one year high of $127.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.77 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market cap of $1.50 billion, a PE ratio of 10.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.85.

Helen of Troy (NASDAQ:HELE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 9th. The company reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.16. Helen of Troy had a return on equity of 9.31% and a net margin of 7.35%. The business had revenue of $474.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $458.85 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.45 EPS. Helen of Troy’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Helen of Troy Limited will post 6.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Helen of Troy announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, September 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $500.00 million in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 39.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans 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.