The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) Receives $155.00 Average Target Price from Analysts

The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Reduce” from the fifteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $155.00.

CLX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Clorox from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $170.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Clorox from $153.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Clorox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $174.00 to $187.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Clorox from $148.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Clorox from $144.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Angela C. Hilt sold 1,733 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $165.52, for a total transaction of $286,846.16. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 13,471 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,229,719.92. This represents a 11.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Clorox

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its holdings in Clorox by 46,877.8% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 4,500,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $733,095,000 after purchasing an additional 4,490,421 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Clorox by 1,715.5% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,461,207 shares of the company’s stock valued at $199,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380,724 shares during the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Clorox by 150.6% during the 2nd quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,597,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,035,000 after buying an additional 960,094 shares during the period. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP increased its holdings in shares of Clorox by 512.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 542,110 shares of the company’s stock worth $88,315,000 after buying an additional 453,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Clorox by 13,547.0% in the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 440,116 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,063,000 after buying an additional 436,891 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.53% of the company’s stock.

Clorox Stock Up 1.2 %

CLX opened at $167.69 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $162.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $147.34. Clorox has a 12 month low of $127.60 and a 12 month high of $169.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.07, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.08, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $1.86 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.50. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.64 billion. Clorox had a net margin of 4.78% and a return on equity of 316.08%. The business’s revenue was up 27.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.49 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Clorox will post 6.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 23rd were paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 23rd. Clorox’s payout ratio is 170.04%.

About Clorox

The Clorox Company manufactures and markets consumer and professional products worldwide. It operates through four segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment offers cleaning products, such as laundry additives and home care products primarily under the Clorox, Clorox2, Scentiva, Pine-Sol, Liquid-Plumr, Tilex, and Formula 409 brands; professional cleaning and disinfecting products under the CloroxPro and Clorox Healthcare brands; professional food service products under the Hidden Valley brand; and vitamins, minerals and supplement products under the RenewLife, Natural Vitality, NeoCell, and Rainbow Light brands in the United States.