National Bank of Canada FI Increases Stake in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX - Free Report) by 56.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 161,216 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 58,150 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned about 0.13% of Clorox worth $26,264,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CLX. EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Clorox by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,482 shares of the company's stock worth $1,056,000 after acquiring an additional 739 shares during the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association lifted its stake in Clorox by 23.1% in the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 36,426 shares of the company's stock worth $5,934,000 after purchasing an additional 6,844 shares during the last quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Clorox during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,343,000. Wallace Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Clorox by 0.7% during the third quarter. Wallace Capital Management Inc. now owns 13,454 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,192,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Clorox by 3.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,182,109 shares of the company's stock worth $1,332,947,000 after buying an additional 245,525 shares during the period. 78.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CLX shares. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Clorox from $140.00 to $139.00 and set an "underperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. TD Cowen raised shares of Clorox from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $155.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Clorox from $148.00 to $174.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Clorox from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $174.00 to $187.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on shares of Clorox from $153.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Clorox currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $155.00.

Clorox Stock Up 0.2 %

CLX stock traded up $0.33 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $167.73. 979,205 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,232,507. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $163.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $150.86. The Clorox Company has a 12 month low of $127.60 and a 12 month high of $171.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.08, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 1.00. The company has a market capitalization of $20.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 0.42.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.64 billion. Clorox had a net margin of 4.78% and a return on equity of 316.08%. The company's revenue was up 27.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.49 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The Clorox Company will post 6.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be given a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.91%. Clorox's payout ratio is 170.04%.

Clorox 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.