Ritholtz Wealth Management Increases Holdings in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 232.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 9,739 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,808 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Clorox were worth $1,389,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Clorox by 0.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,341,234 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,010,622,000 after purchasing an additional 44,344 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Clorox by 4.9% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,929,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,579,141,000 after purchasing an additional 466,197 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Clorox by 3.8% in the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,725,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $430,349,000 after buying an additional 100,920 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Clorox by 17.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,415,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $316,517,000 after acquiring an additional 357,964 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Clorox by 2.2% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,184,875 shares of the company’s stock valued at $286,356,000 after purchasing an additional 47,879 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. DA Davidson reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $162.00 target price on shares of Clorox in a research note on Monday, February 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Clorox from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Clorox from $145.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Clorox from $145.00 to $152.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Clorox from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $120.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Friday, December 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $147.06.

Clorox Stock Performance

NYSE CLX opened at $153.14 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.37. The Clorox Company has a 12-month low of $114.68 and a 12-month high of $178.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 243.08, a PEG ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.43. The business’s 50 day moving average is $150.70 and its two-hundred day moving average is $140.93.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 1st. The company reported $2.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $1.08. Clorox had a net margin of 1.09% and a return on equity of 319.41%. The business had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.98 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 16.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that The Clorox Company will post 5.52 EPS for the current year.

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 24th will be paid a $1.20 dividend. This represents a $4.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 23rd. Clorox’s dividend payout ratio is currently 761.92%.

About Clorox

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.