Honest (NASDAQ:HNST) CEO Sells 117,893 Shares of Stock

The Honest Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:HNST) CEO Carla Vernon sold 117,893 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.99, for a total value of $588,286.07. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 3,828,558 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,104,504.42. The trade was a 2.99% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Honest Stock Performance

HNST traded up $0.15 on Monday, reaching $5.20. The company had a trading volume of 2,778,794 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,883,129. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $4.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.37. The company has a market cap of $572.41 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -47.27 and a beta of 2.12. The Honest Company, Inc. has a 52-week low of $2.07 and a 52-week high of $5.84.

Honest (NASDAQ:HNST) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $80.19 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $77.83 million. Honest had a negative net margin of 3.56% and a positive return on equity of 4.31%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The Honest Company, Inc. will post 0.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HNST has been the topic of a number of research reports. Telsey Advisory Group raised their price target on Honest from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Honest from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Northland Securities set a $5.50 price objective on Honest in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Freedom Capital upgraded Honest from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Honest from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Honest currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.84.

Institutional Trading of Honest

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Honest during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $25,662,000. Mak Capital One LLC purchased a new position in shares of Honest in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $9,104,000. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Honest by 796.2% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,006,646 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,177,000 after purchasing an additional 1,782,742 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Honest by 70.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,520,331 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,922,000 after purchasing an additional 627,537 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS Group AG grew its stake in Honest by 77.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,014,939 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,619,000 after purchasing an additional 442,542 shares during the period. 45.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Honest Company Profile

The Honest Company, Inc (NASDAQ: HNST) is an American consumer goods firm specializing in eco-friendly and responsibly formulated products for babies, personal care, beauty and home cleaning. The company emphasizes transparency in ingredient sourcing and product safety, positioning itself in the premium segment of mass-market retail and direct-to-consumer channels.

Honest was founded in 2011 by actress Jessica Alba and environmental health advocate Christopher Gavigan with a mission to offer parents household and baby care items free from harsh chemicals and synthetic fragrances.