3 Reasons to Avoid HLF and 1 Stock to Buy Instead Jabin Bastian Thu, October 8, 2026 at 12:08 PM EDT 3 min read HLF +0.63% ^GSPC -0.21% Trade HLF on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
Over the past six months, Herbalife's stock price fell to $12.45. Shareholders have lost 17.4% of their capital, which is disappointing considering the S&P 500 has climbed by 15.2%. This may have investors wondering how to approach the situation.
Is there a buying opportunity in Herbalife, or does it present a risk to your portfolio? Get the full stock story straight from our expert analysts, it's free.
Even with the cheaper entry price, we're passing on Herbalife for now. Here are three reasons you should be careful with HLF, plus one stock we'd rather own.
When analyzing revenue growth, we care most about organic revenue growth. This metric captures a business's performance excluding one-time events such as mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures as well as foreign currency fluctuations.
The demand for Herbalife's products has been stable over the last eight quarters but fell behind the broader sector. On average, the company has posted feeble year-on-year organic revenue growth of 1.3%.
Forecasted revenues by Wall Street analysts signal a company's potential. Predictions may not always be accurate, but accelerating growth typically boosts valuation multiples and stock prices while slowing growth does the opposite.
Over the next 12 months, sell-side analysts expect Herbalife's revenue to rise by 2.1%, close to its 1% annualized growth for the past three years. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its newer products will not lead to better top-line performance yet.
We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) because it highlights whether a company's growth is profitable.
Sadly for Herbalife, its EPS declined by 8.3% annually over the last three years while its revenue grew by 1%. This tells us the company became less profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.
Herbalife isn't a terrible business, but it doesn't pass our bar. After the recent drawdown, the stock trades at 4.7× forward P/E (or $12.45 per share). This valuation multiple is fair, but we don't have much faith in the company. We're pretty confident there are superior stocks to buy right now. We'd suggest looking at a top digital advertising platform riding the creator economy.
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