LONDON, June 26, 2026, 16:04 BST
- Haleon traded close to 349p in London late Friday, holding just over Thursday’s finish.
- The last reported buybacks went through around 332p on average, under the current spot level.
- J.P. Morgan Cazenove on June 25 stuck with its Underweight rating and lowered the target to 315p from 335p.
- H1 results are due July 30, putting the focus on whether Oral Health can take on more of the burden.
Haleon PLC (LON:HLN) was last trading above the price set in its latest buyback, raising questions late Friday about how much lift the £500 million repurchase will give shares after a fast climb earlier in the week. The stock stood at 349.10p/349.20p, up 1.00p, near 16:04 BST. The London Stock Exchange’s session runs from 08:00 to 16:30 BST.
Haleon jumped 4.29% to £3.48 on Wednesday, topping the FTSE 100 (INDEXFTSE:UKX), which was up just 0.31%, MarketWatch reported. The stock is still down 16.37% from its 52-week high of £4.16 hit on Feb. 18. Trading volume came in at 22.2 million shares, short of the 50-day average of 25.3 million.
Haleon bought 14,288,204 shares for cancellation between June 16 and June 18, according to the latest RNS buyback table, with trades going through London Stock Exchange and Cboe venues. The venue-level volume-weighted average prices come out to 332.4p, or about 5% under the 349.15p mid quote from Friday.
Buyback price is making a difference. At 332.4p, Haleon could retire around 150 million shares with a £500 million buyback. But at 349.15p, it would retire closer to 143 million shares. That’s a gap of about 7.2 million shares, or 0.08% of Haleon’s total 8.86 billion shares outstanding.
Haleon’s rally isn’t enough to shake off broker worries. J.P. Morgan Cazenove, the JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) unit, kept its Underweight on June 25 and lowered its Haleon target to 315p from 335p. That’s about 10% under Friday’s middle price.
Haleon posted Q1 revenue of £2.857 billion, with organic growth at 2.2%. Price was up 2.4%, while volume and mix slipped 0.2%. The company said the quarter took a 130 basis point hit from a slow cold and flu season. Oral Health was up 8.3%, but Respiratory Health dropped 3.4%. CEO Brian McNamara called the numbers a “competitive performance” and said he expects growth to “accelerate across the balance of the year.” Haleon Corporate
Investors are watching to see if Haleon can drive growth outside toothpaste. Reuters said in April North America was up 1% in Q1, boosted by Sensodyne and Parodontax. Quilter analyst Chris Beckett said Haleon “needs more than the toothpaste business to start performing.” Reuters
Haleon’s cash position looks better than its sales result. The company posted £1.913 billion in 2025 free cash flow and showed net debt at 2.6 times adjusted EBITDA. Shareholder returns came in at £1.1 billion for the year. There’s also £500 million earmarked for 2026 buybacks.
Haleon sets July 30 for H1 2026 results. Investors will look at two things after Friday — if Q2 volume/mix is back in the plus column, and if the company is still buying back shares below market price.
