Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Shares of Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD - Get Free Report) have received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the fifteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and seven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $108.29.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CHD shares. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Church & Dwight from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Church & Dwight from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $100.00 to $114.00 in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Barclays dropped their target price on Church & Dwight from $94.00 to $84.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. TD Cowen downgraded Church & Dwight from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $100.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Church & Dwight from $106.00 to $102.00 and set an "in-line" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd.

Church & Dwight Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE CHD traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $94.84. 3,093,647 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,745,105. Church & Dwight has a 52 week low of $90.99 and a 52 week high of $116.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.43, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $96.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $103.06. The stock has a market cap of $23.36 billion, a PE ratio of 40.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.52.

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.52 billion. Church & Dwight had a return on equity of 19.28% and a net margin of 9.52%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.96 EPS. Analysts forecast that Church & Dwight will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Church & Dwight Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th were issued a $0.295 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $1.18 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Church & Dwight's payout ratio is currently 50.64%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Penry W. Price sold 14,660 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.13, for a total transaction of $1,365,285.80. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 27,043 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,518,514.59. This trade represents a 35.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Michael Read bought 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 9th. The stock was bought at an average price of $92.07 per share, with a total value of $276,210.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the executive vice president now directly owns 5,505 shares in the company, valued at $506,845.35. This represents a 119.76% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,575 shares of company stock valued at $4,910,586 over the last three months. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Church & Dwight

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Church & Dwight during the 4th quarter worth approximately $318,532,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Church & Dwight by 19.4% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 7,336,046 shares of the company's stock worth $768,157,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190,154 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Church & Dwight during the first quarter worth $106,736,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Church & Dwight by 12,489.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 861,895 shares of the company's stock valued at $94,886,000 after purchasing an additional 855,049 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Church & Dwight by 2.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 31,441,639 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,461,410,000 after purchasing an additional 750,575 shares during the last quarter. 86.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Church & Dwight Company Profile

Church & Dwight Co, Inc engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of household, personal care, and specialty products. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International, Specialty Products Division (SPD), and Corporate. The Consumer Domestic segment offers household products, such as laundry detergents, fabric softener sheets, cat litter, household cleaning products, and personal care products including antiperspirants, oral care products, depilatories, reproductive health products, oral analgesics, nasal saline moisturizers, and dietary supplements.