Citigroup Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Clorox (NYSE:CLX) Stock Price

Key Points

• Citigroup lowered Clorox’s price target from $100 to $97 while maintaining a “neutral” rating, implying 11.27% potential upside from the stock’s $87.18 price.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious: Clorox has an average “Reduce” rating and a consensus price target of $101.40, with 12 analysts rating it a Hold and five assigning a Sell rating.
• Clorox beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, but revenue declined 2% year over year and earnings fell from the prior-year period; the stock is near its 12-month low and below both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX - Get Free Report) had its target price cut by equities researchers at Citigroup from $100.00 to $97.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "neutral" rating on the stock. Citigroup's price target suggests a potential upside of 11.27% from the company's current price.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on CLX. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Clorox from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $125.00 to $98.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Clorox in a research report on Friday, July 10th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $98.00 price target on shares of Clorox in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. BNP Paribas Exane decreased their price objective on Clorox from $97.00 to $95.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Clorox from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $101.40.

Clorox Stock Performance

CLX traded down $1.59 during trading on Friday, hitting $87.18. The stock had a trading volume of 3,437,423 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,603,139. The firm has a market cap of $10.54 billion, a PE ratio of 18.08, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 15.80. Clorox has a 12 month low of $84.70 and a 12 month high of $128.90. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $99.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $100.64.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The company reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.02. Clorox had a return on equity of 522.23% and a net margin of 8.74%.The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.91 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.87 earnings per share. Clorox's quarterly revenue was down 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Clorox has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.700-6.000 EPS. Analysts expect that Clorox will post 5.8 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in Clorox by 7,435.1% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 13,697,835 shares of the company's stock worth $1,307,321,000 after acquiring an additional 13,516,047 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Clorox during the second quarter worth $958,640,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Clorox by 3.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,434,277 shares of the company's stock worth $1,039,946,000 after purchasing an additional 282,794 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Clorox by 22.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,880,341 shares of the company's stock valued at $492,085,000 after buying an additional 884,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Clorox by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,172,233 shares of the company's stock valued at $318,613,000 after buying an additional 10,060 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.53% of the company's stock.

About Clorox

The Clorox Company NYSE: CLX is a consumer products company that develops, manufactures and markets household, health and wellness, and lifestyle products. Its portfolio includes cleaning and disinfecting products, laundry and home-care items, food products, personal-care products, water-filtration systems, charcoal, and cat litter.

Clorox's brands include Clorox bleach and disinfecting products, Pine-Sol, Fresh Step and Scoop Away, Kingsford, Brita, Burt's Bees, Hidden Valley, and products marketed under the Glad name.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.