Analysts React to Data Released on Herbalife (HLF)

released the results of a study earlier Wednesday, which revealed the penetration of the company's distributors and end users throughout the U.S. The company hired Nielsen to conduct the research In the report, Nielsen concluded that 3.3 percent of the general population has purchased a Herbalife product within the past three months. This means that Herbalife currently has about 7.9 million customers when projected to the total U.S. adult population. Shortly after this news was released, the stock jumped up almost 5 percent and has stayed at that level for most of the day. Analysts who cover Herbalife are pleased but not surprised to see this positive data. Analyst from Canaccord, for example, believe Herbalife's business model and deployment of daily consumption model are positive contributors to the company and will help grow the company globally. Canaccord also noted that the Nielsen study results were perfectly in line with earlier Lieberman findings that regard customer breadth. Analysts at Suntrust Robinson Humphrey also expressed similar notions about the company. One analyst that Benzinga reached out to at the company stated that Herbalife is usually very successful at producing positive noise in the market. He also went on to comment on Herbalife's name brand image, saying it should help to constructively grow the company for the long term. Herbalife closed Wednesday at $45.27 up 4.36 percent on the day.