Edgewell Personal Care Co (NYSE:EPC) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Shares of Edgewell Personal Care Co (NYSE:EPC - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the five analysts that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $42.40.

EPC has been the topic of several research reports. Barclays cut their price objective on Edgewell Personal Care from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com cut Edgewell Personal Care from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Edgewell Personal Care from $50.00 to $40.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 16th.

Edgewell Personal Care Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of Edgewell Personal Care stock traded down $1.21 on Tuesday, hitting $35.89. The stock had a trading volume of 412,267 shares, compared to its average volume of 399,311. The stock has a market cap of $1.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.94 and a beta of 0.88. Edgewell Personal Care has a one year low of $33.27 and a one year high of $41.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $35.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.63.

Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE:EPC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.05. Edgewell Personal Care had a return on equity of 9.78% and a net margin of 4.38%. The business had revenue of $517.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $535.23 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.72 EPS. Edgewell Personal Care's quarterly revenue was down 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Edgewell Personal Care will post 3.21 EPS for the current year.

Edgewell Personal Care Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 8th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 3rd will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Edgewell Personal Care's dividend payout ratio is presently 30.61%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Edgewell Personal Care

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EPC. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Edgewell Personal Care by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,620,865 shares of the company's stock worth $145,524,000 after buying an additional 24,513 shares in the last quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its holdings in Edgewell Personal Care by 19.7% in the 2nd quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 1,529,647 shares of the company's stock worth $61,545,000 after purchasing an additional 252,235 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Edgewell Personal Care by 0.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,130,160 shares of the company's stock worth $41,078,000 after buying an additional 6,964 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its stake in shares of Edgewell Personal Care by 16.6% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,071,354 shares of the company's stock valued at $43,058,000 after acquiring an additional 152,200 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Edgewell Personal Care by 2.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 778,689 shares of the company's stock worth $28,298,000 after purchasing an additional 22,209 shares during the period. 91.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Edgewell Personal Care

Edgewell Personal Care Company is a manufacturer and marketer of personal care products in the wet shave, sun and skin care, feminine care and infant care categories. As of September 30, 2016, the Company had a portfolio of over 25 brands. It manages its business in four segments: Wet Shave, Sun and Skin Care, Feminine Care and All Other.