Shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX – Get Rating) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the fifteen brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $141.00.

CLX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Clorox from $110.00 to $108.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Clorox from $142.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Clorox from $126.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Clorox from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Clorox from $152.00 to $147.00 in a report on Monday.

Clorox Stock Performance

NYSE CLX opened at $154.61 on Friday. Clorox has a 1 year low of $120.50 and a 1 year high of $160.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.04, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The firm has a market cap of $19.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.17, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.29. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $150.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $144.84.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 2nd. The company reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.66 billion. Clorox had a net margin of 6.16% and a return on equity of 89.97%. The business's revenue was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Clorox will post 4.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 26th will be issued a $1.18 dividend. This represents a $4.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.05%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 25th. Clorox's payout ratio is 134.86%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Clorox

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Clorox by 18.0% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 8,320 shares of the company's stock worth $1,157,000 after purchasing an additional 1,269 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in shares of Clorox by 6.8% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 16,465 shares of the company's stock worth $2,289,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its position in shares of Clorox by 276.6% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 9,318 shares of the company's stock worth $1,295,000 after purchasing an additional 6,844 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Clorox by 0.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 683,818 shares of the company's stock worth $95,073,000 after purchasing an additional 5,145 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL increased its position in shares of Clorox by 81.1% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 24,525 shares of the company's stock worth $3,410,000 after purchasing an additional 10,981 shares during the last quarter. 79.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Clorox Company Profile

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The Clorox Co engages in the manufacture and marketing of consumer and professional products. It operates through the following business segments: Health and Wellness, Household, Lifestyle, and International. The Health and Wellness segment consists of cleaning products, professional products and vitamins, minerals and supplements mainly marketed and sold in the United States.

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