The shares of Herbalife were negatively impacted by the report that a consumer died from complications related to excessive consumption of slimming shakes as reported by Elsiglo, a publication based in Venezuela.
The stock price of Herbalife declined more than 1% to $50.15 per share, at the time of this writing around 2:12 in the afternoon in New York.
The report identified the consumer as Lorena Peralta Baltazar, who allegedly died because of too much consumption of Herbalife slimming shakes. She was 28 years old.
Ms. Baltazar felt intense pain throughout her body. She was admitted to the general hospital of Huistla, Chiapas on October 14. The doctors performed a series of tests and discovered a high amount of lead in her blood, which caused kidney failure and complications in her liver, pancreas, and other vital organs, according to her father. Since then, Ms. Peralta’s father believed that she died because of her excessive consumption of slimming shakes.
Herbalife slimming shake not associated with patient’s death
The Mexican hospital where Ms. Peralta was admitted issued a statement indicating that the claim of her father about the cause of her death was false.
Dr. Jairo Trejo Perez, the hospital director, stated that Ms. Peralta died because of a “serious pre-existing condition.
He also emphasized that no medical institution provided information associating the death of the patient to her excessive consumption of Herbalife shakes.
Herbalife earnings estimate
Meanwhile, the management of Herbalife is expected to release the company’s quarterly financial results on February 25.
Wall Street analysts estimated that the company will report earnings of $0.97 per share and $1.06 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter.
The company is expecting to achieve quarterly earnings between $0.85 and $0.95 per share and net sales to decline around 5.5% to 8.5%. During the previous quarter, Herbalife posted earnings of $1.28 per share and sales of $1.1 billion.
Wall Street analysts covering the stock have price targets in the range of $55 per share to $73 per share. Over the past 52 weeks, Herbalife shares traded between $29.27 and $61.95 per share. The company gained more than 58% in stock value over the past year.
H/T The Real Fly
