The Clorox Company to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $1.22 (NYSE:CLX)

The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 25th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 23rd will be paid a dividend of 1.22 per share on Friday, May 9th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 23rd.

Clorox has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.9% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 47 consecutive years. Clorox has a dividend payout ratio of 66.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Clorox to earn $7.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 68.5%.

Clorox Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of CLX stock opened at $153.15 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.52, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market cap of $18.87 billion, a PE ratio of 41.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a 50-day moving average of $157.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $160.08. Clorox has a 1-year low of $127.60 and a 1-year high of $171.37.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.16. Clorox had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 316.87%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.16 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Clorox will post 7.15 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Clorox from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, January 5th. TD Cowen raised shares of Clorox from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Clorox from $157.00 to $161.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Clorox in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Clorox from $171.00 to $173.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $158.21.

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.