Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. Acquires New Shares in The Clorox Company $CLX

Key Points

• Beutel Goodman acquired 2,012,569 Clorox shares in the third quarter, worth about $163 million and representing roughly 1.66% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment is cautious: MarketBeat reports a consensus “Reduce” rating and an average price target of $93.79, with 11 Hold and four Sell ratings among the analysts cited.
• Clorox beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, reporting EPS of $1.55 and revenue of $1.91 billion, up 33.3% year over year. The company also declared a $1.25 quarterly dividend, equivalent to a 4.7% yield.

Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. acquired a new position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 2,012,569 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $163,038,000. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. owned about 1.66% of Clorox as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Clorox in the second quarter worth $958,640,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in Clorox during the 2nd quarter valued at $179,780,000. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its position in Clorox by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,737,891 shares of the company's stock valued at $140,787,000 after purchasing an additional 102,732 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada increased its position in Clorox by 20.1% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,418,204 shares of the company's stock valued at $146,969,000 after purchasing an additional 237,301 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Clorox during the 2nd quarter valued at $123,154,000. 78.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Clorox

In other Clorox news, Director Pierre Breber purchased 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 4th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $100.06 per share, with a total value of $400,240.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 22,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,201,320. The trade was a 22.22% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Clorox from $84.00 to $80.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 16th. UBS Group set a $88.00 target price on shares of Clorox in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Zacks Research cut shares of Clorox from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 29th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Clorox from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $125.00 to $98.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Clorox from $97.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Clorox has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and an average price target of $93.79.

Clorox Price Performance

Shares of CLX stock opened at $105.29 on Tuesday. The business's fifty day moving average is $87.77 and its 200 day moving average is $99.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 32.91. The stock has a market cap of $12.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.89, a PEG ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 0.59. The Clorox Company has a twelve month low of $79.12 and a twelve month high of $128.90.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 2nd. The company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.48. Clorox had a return on equity of 608.30% and a net margin of 9.41%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that The Clorox Company will post 5.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 28th will be paid a $1.25 dividend. This represents a $5.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 28th. Clorox's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 89.93%.

Clorox Company Profile

The Clorox Company is a consumer products company founded in 1913 and headquartered in Oakland, California. It makes and markets products for household cleaning, food, water filtration, personal care and pet care.

Its portfolio includes Clorox disinfecting and cleaning products, Glad trash bags and food-storage products, Kingsford charcoal, Brita water filters, Hidden Valley dressings and sauces, Burt's Bees personal-care products, and Fresh Step cat litter. The company also sells products under brands such as Pine-Sol and Liquid-Plumr.

Clorox serves consumers primarily in the United States and also sells products in international markets.

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