Haleon plc (HLN) Stock Price & How to Invest
Last updated October 2026
Short answer
Haleon (NYSE: HLN) is a pure-play global consumer-health company spun out of GSK, home to Sensodyne, Advil, Panadol, Centrum, and Voltaren, and it trades on the NYSE as an ADR. Investors treat it as a defensive, brand-led compounder growing organic revenue in the low-to-mid single digits. As of October 16, 2026 the ADR closed near $10.06, a market value of about $44 billion, roughly flat year to date and up about 9% over a year.
HLN stock price
As of 2026-10-22, Haleon plc (HLN) last closed at $10.37, up 12.1% over the past year. Over the past 52 weeks it has traded between $8.70 and $11.27.
Prices are daily closing prices from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. For the live quote, check your broker or Haleon plc's investor relations page. Walnut is informational, not investment advice.
What does Haleon plc (HLN) do?
Haleon plc is one of the world's largest standalone consumer-health companies, created when GSK demerged its consumer division in 2022. It sells everyday over-the-counter products across five categories: Oral Health (Sensodyne, parodontax, Polident), Pain Relief (Advil, Panadol, Voltaren, Excedrin), Respiratory Health (Theraflu, Otrivin), Vitamins, Minerals and Supplements (Centrum, Emergen-C), and Digestive Health and Therapeutic Skin Health (Tums, Fenistil). The company generated roughly 11 billion pounds (about ~$14 billion) of revenue in 2025 and about 11.15 billion pounds over the twelve months to June 2026, and holds leading or top-tier positions in many of its categories, which gives it pricing power and broad global distribution across pharmacy, grocery, and e-commerce channels.
The investment picture centers on Haleon as a defensive compounder. Growth is driven by trusted brands, innovation launches, and expansion in emerging markets, while management has focused on margin expansion, debt reduction, and returning cash through dividends and buybacks. Pfizer, a legacy shareholder from the GSK-Pfizer consumer joint venture, fully exited its stake in 2025, removing a long-standing overhang. Revenue was about 2.86 billion pounds in Q1 2026 and about 2.75 billion pounds in Q2, with latest-quarter growth of about 2.2%. Sentiment cooled in late September 2026 when J.P. Morgan rated the shares underweight, tracked Q3 organic growth at about 3% (the bottom of guidance) on a weaker European outlook, and said it expects the medium-term growth target to be reset in February 2027. The trade-off is that a slow-and-steady category (single-digit organic growth) means the stock is valued as a stable consumer-staples name rather than a high-growth story, so returns depend heavily on execution, currency, and valuation.
What's driving Haleon plc (HLN)?
1. Oral Health leadership
Oral Health is Haleon's standout engine, growing around 8% organically in 2025 and posting double-digit growth in early 2026, led by Sensodyne and parodontax. Innovation launches such as Sensodyne Clinical Repair and parodontax Gum Strengthen and Protect support premium pricing. This category is a structural growth driver that helps offset softer performance elsewhere.
2. Margin expansion and cash returns
Management has prioritized productivity, disciplined brand investment, and cost control, delivering roughly 10% organic adjusted operating profit growth in 2025 with margin expansion; trailing operating margin is about 24% and free cash flow about 1.8 billion pounds. Debt reduction and share buybacks (including repurchases tied to Pfizer's exit) plus a growing dividend are central to the shareholder-return story. Medium-term guidance calls for high-single-digit adjusted operating profit growth, though J.P. Morgan has argued the roughly 200 basis points of margin gained over 2024-26 came mainly from cost savings rather than operating leverage.
3. Emerging-markets and innovation-led growth
Haleon leans on a global footprint and continuous product innovation to drive volume and mix. Campaigns like That's One for Panadol, clinical-claim activations on Centrum Silver, and an October 2026 Excedrin campaign built on digital-pet nostalgia aim to take share and premiumize, and the company has been paying for better shelf placement in the US. Emerging markets offer a longer runway for category penetration than mature Western markets.
4. Pfizer overhang removed
Pfizer sold down and fully exited its remaining stake in Haleon during 2025, ending years of periodic block sales that pressured the share price. With that structural seller gone, the free float is cleaner and the register is dominated by long-term institutional holders, which can reduce a recurring source of volatility.
What are the risks to Haleon plc (HLN)?
Organic growth has run at the low end of category norms (about 3% in 2025), pressured by a weak cold and flu season and soft North American consumer confidence, and J.P. Morgan's tracking puts 2026 at the bottom of the 3-5% guidance range again, so a slow-growth profile is a persistent concern; a reset of the 4-6% medium-term target in February 2027 is a live possibility. The Q4 outlook depends on the cold and flu season. The US pain market has been weak, weighing on Advil despite share gains. Haleon competes against far larger, deeper-pocketed rivals, faces private-label pressure, and carries meaningful debt from its demerger (about 8.3 billion pounds against roughly 0.8 billion of cash). As a UK-based company reporting in pounds, ADR holders are exposed to currency swings, and regulatory or product-liability issues in over-the-counter categories are an ongoing tail risk.
What is the Haleon plc (HLN) forecast?
5 analysts publish price targets on HLN, averaging $11.93 against a $10.13 price as of October 2026, or +17.8%. The published targets run from $10.00 to $13.77, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 3 buy, 2 hold, 0 sell. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.
Read the full HLN forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.
Is HLN a buy or a sell?
We give no verdict on Haleon plc. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.
The case for buying. Oral Health leadership. Oral Health is Haleon's standout engine, growing around 8% organically in 2025 and posting double-digit growth in early 2026, led by Sensodyne and parodontax. The most optimistic published target, $13.77, assumes this works close to its best case.
The case against. Organic growth has run at the low end of category norms (about 3% in 2025), pressured by a weak cold and flu season and soft North American consumer confidence, and J.P. The most pessimistic target, $10.00, is roughly what HLN is worth if this bites instead.
Read the full bull and bear case on HLN, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
Has Haleon plc (HLN) split its stock?
No. Haleon plc (HLN) has not split its stock in the last 10 years. That is a statement about the window we check rather than about the company’s entire history, so an older split is possible. It also matters less than it once did: fractional shares mean a high price per share no longer keeps smaller investors out, which removed most of the practical reason to split.
How is Haleon plc (HLN) valued? (approximate, October 2026)
A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Haleon plc's investor relations page or your broker.
- Revenue (TTM): ~£11.15B (FY2025 ~£11.0B, ~$14B)
- Q2 2026 revenue: ~£2.75B (latest-quarter growth ~2.2%)
- Margins (TTM): ~66% gross, ~24% operating, ~15% net
- Net income (TTM): ~£1.6B
- Market cap: ~$44B (ADR ~$10.06 on October 16, 2026)
- P/E (trailing / forward): ~20x / ~16x
- Dividend yield: ~2% (payout ~40% of earnings)
Haleon trades at about 20 times trailing and 16 times forward earnings, broadly in line with large consumer-staples peers, which prices in its defensive, cash-generative profile rather than a growth premium. Management guides to 3-5% organic revenue growth for 2026, but analyst tracking points to the bottom of that range, and the five covering analysts in the US data carry a mean ADR target near $11.93. The Q3 trading update on October 29, 2026 is the next read; figures are approximate and vary with currency and reporting conventions for the ADR.
Who competes with Haleon plc (HLN)?
Pure-play and spun-out consumer-health peers
Kenvue (the 2023 Johnson and Johnson spinoff, owner of Tylenol and Listerine) is the closest comparable and competes head-to-head in pain relief and oral care, especially in North America. Both are standalone consumer-health companies valued on similar defensive metrics.
Diversified consumer and OTC giants
Procter and Gamble (Crest, Oral-B, Vicks), Reckitt (Mucinex, Nurofen), Colgate-Palmolive (oral care), and Bayer (Claritin, Aleve) contest Haleon across oral health, pain, respiratory, and digestive categories with large scale and marketing budgets.
Private label and regional players
Store-brand and private-label manufacturers plus regional OTC and supplement makers pressure pricing and shelf space, particularly in vitamins and everyday pain relief where consumers can trade down during weak macro periods.
What stocks are similar to Haleon plc (HLN)?
Other names that sit close to HLN: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.
How to invest in Haleon plc (HLN)
There are three common ways to get HLN exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so HLN sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.
Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where HLN fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.
New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.
The bottom line on Haleon plc (HLN)
Haleon is a large, cash-generative consumer-health owner of everyday brands whose appeal rests on steady organic growth and margin expansion rather than rapid top-line acceleration. The open question going into its October 29, 2026 trading update is whether growth stays at the bottom of the 3-5% range for a second year.
More on Haleon plc (HLN)
Whether HLN is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is HLN a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the HLN stock forecast.
For income investors, whether HLN pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does HLN pay a dividend? And to weigh HLN against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: HLN vs KVUE and HLN vs CL.
Wondering how HLN fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.
Investing in Haleon plc with AI
Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how HLN fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.
FAQ
What does Haleon do?
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Haleon is a global consumer-health company that makes over-the-counter products across oral health, pain relief, respiratory health, vitamins and supplements, and digestive and skin health. Its brands include Sensodyne, Advil, Panadol, Centrum, Voltaren, Excedrin, and Theraflu.
Is HLN a US or UK company?
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Haleon is a UK-headquartered company that reports in British pounds and is primarily listed in London. It also trades on the NYSE as an American Depositary Receipt (ADR) under the ticker HLN, which lets US investors buy it in dollars.
Where did Haleon come from?
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Haleon was created in 2022 when GSK demerged its consumer-health division into a separately listed company. The business had earlier been a joint venture combining GSK and Pfizer consumer-health assets, which is why Pfizer held a stake for several years.
Did Pfizer sell its Haleon stake?
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Yes. Pfizer progressively sold down its holding and fully exited its remaining stake in Haleon during 2025, including sales to institutional investors and share repurchases by Haleon. That removed a long-standing overhang from a large structural seller.
How fast is Haleon growing?
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Haleon delivered about 3% organic revenue growth in 2025, held back by a weak cold and flu season and soft North American demand. Management guides to 3-5% organic growth for 2026 and medium-term targets of 4-6%, but J.P. Morgan's September 2026 tracking put Q3 near 3%, the bottom of the range, and it expects the medium-term target to be revisited in February 2027.
Does Haleon pay a dividend?
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Yes. Haleon pays a dividend and has been growing it alongside share buybacks as part of its capital-return program. The yield on the ADR was about 2% in October 2026, with a payout of roughly 40% of earnings, and it varies with the share price and currency.
Who are Haleon's main competitors?
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Its closest peer is Kenvue, the Johnson and Johnson consumer-health spinoff. It also competes with Procter and Gamble, Reckitt, Colgate-Palmolive, and Bayer across oral care, pain relief, respiratory, and vitamins, plus private-label brands on price.
What are the main risks with HLN?
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Key risks include slow single-digit organic growth that may land at the bottom of guidance again, weak US pain and cold and flu demand, intense competition from larger rivals and private label, demerger-related debt, currency exposure for ADR holders, and regulatory or product-liability risk in over-the-counter categories.
How has HLN stock performed in 2026?
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As of October 16, 2026, the HLN ADR closed near $10.06, roughly flat year to date (up about 0.6%) and up about 9% over the past year, within a 52-week range of about $8.65 to $11.28. It rose about 8% in the month to mid-October despite J.P. Morgan's underweight call in late September.
When does Haleon next report?
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Haleon's Q3 2026 trading update is due on October 29, 2026. Haleon reports quarterly revenue and organic growth, with fuller half-year and full-year results; Q2 2026 revenue was about 2.75 billion pounds. Analysts in the US data expect Q3 revenue of about 2.92 billion, and the key number to watch is organic growth relative to the 3-5% guidance range.
Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Financial figures on this page are approximations; always verify current numbers with Haleon plc's investor relations page or your broker before making investment decisions.