Clorox (CLX) Competitors

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE:KMB) are both large-cap consumer staples companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, community ranking, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends and earnings.

Do institutionals and insiders believe in CLX or KMB?

78.5% of Clorox shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.3% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Clorox shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Kimberly-Clark shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility & risk, CLX or KMB?

Clorox has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kimberly-Clark has a beta of 0.37, suggesting that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate CLX or KMB?

Clorox presently has a consensus target price of $153.83, suggesting a potential upside of 10.58%. Kimberly-Clark has a consensus target price of $146.57, suggesting a potential upside of 9.70%. Given Clorox's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Clorox is more favorable than Kimberly-Clark.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Clorox	3 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.85
Kimberly-Clark	2 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Is CLX or KMB a better dividend stock?

Clorox pays an annual dividend of $4.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Kimberly-Clark pays an annual dividend of $5.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Clorox pays out 133.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Kimberly-Clark pays out 66.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Clorox has raised its dividend for 47 consecutive years and Kimberly-Clark has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years. Kimberly-Clark is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CLX or KMB?

Kimberly-Clark received 196 more outperform votes than Clorox when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 49.64% of users gave Kimberly-Clark an outperform vote while only 38.58% of users gave Clorox an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Clorox	Outperform Votes 358 38.58%	Underperform Votes 570 61.42%
Kimberly-Clark	Outperform Votes 554 49.64%	Underperform Votes 562 50.36%

Does the media prefer CLX or KMB?

In the previous week, Kimberly-Clark had 45 more articles in the media than Clorox. MarketBeat recorded 66 mentions for Kimberly-Clark and 21 mentions for Clorox. Clorox's average media sentiment score of 0.91 beat Kimberly-Clark's score of 0.86 indicating that Clorox is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Clorox	14 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Kimberly-Clark	25 Very Positive mention(s)	10 Positive mention(s)	18 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, CLX or KMB?

Kimberly-Clark has higher revenue and earnings than Clorox. Kimberly-Clark is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Clorox, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Clorox	$7.17B	2.39	$280M	$3.66	38.01
Kimberly-Clark	$20.06B	2.21	$2.55B	$7.55	17.70

Is CLX or KMB more profitable?

Kimberly-Clark has a net margin of 12.69% compared to Clorox's net margin of 6.38%. Clorox's return on equity of 316.87% beat Kimberly-Clark's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Clorox	6.38%	316.87%	15.29%
Kimberly-Clark	12.69%	201.43%	14.45%

Summary

Kimberly-Clark beats Clorox on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.