Clorox's (CLX) "Neutral" Rating Reaffirmed at Citigroup

Citigroup reaffirmed their neutral rating on shares of Clorox (NYSE:CLX - Free Report) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Citigroup currently has a $165.00 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of $170.00.

CLX has been the subject of several other reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of Clorox from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and raised their target price for the company from $120.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Friday, December 15th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Clorox from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, December 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Clorox from $145.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Clorox in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a sell rating and a $140.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Clorox from $115.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and twelve have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $148.00.

Clorox Stock Down 2.0 %

CLX stock traded down $2.96 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $148.69. 1,226,581 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,246,361. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 236.05, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.43. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $151.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $140.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.37. Clorox has a 1 year low of $114.68 and a 1 year high of $178.21.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.08 by $1.08. The company had revenue of $1.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. Clorox had a net margin of 1.09% and a return on equity of 319.41%. Clorox's revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Clorox will post 5.51 EPS for the current year.

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 24th will be issued a $1.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 23rd. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.23%. Clorox's payout ratio is 761.92%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLX. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Clorox during the fourth quarter worth about $144,844,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Clorox during the fourth quarter worth about $128,382,000. Parsifal Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Clorox during the fourth quarter worth about $128,245,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Clorox during the first quarter worth about $135,630,000. Finally, Imprint Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Clorox by 16,986.8% during the second quarter. Imprint Wealth LLC now owns 551,392 shares of the company's stock worth $55,139,000 after purchasing an additional 548,165 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.53% of the company's stock.

Clorox Company Profile

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.