Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) Sets New 1-Year Low After Insider Selling

Shares of Church & Dwight Co., Inc. (NYSE:CHD) hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Monday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $90.99 and last traded at $94.60, with a volume of 1124139 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $91.57.

Specifically, Director Penry W. Price sold 14,660 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $93.13, for a total transaction of $1,365,285.80. Following the transaction, the director now owns 27,043 shares in the company, valued at $2,518,514.59. This represents a 35.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CHD shares. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Church & Dwight from $106.00 to $102.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on Church & Dwight from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Church & Dwight from $106.00 to $98.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Truist Financial upped their target price on Church & Dwight from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on Church & Dwight from $103.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Church & Dwight presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $109.13.

Church & Dwight Trading Down 1.1%

The firm has a market cap of $23.18 billion, a PE ratio of 39.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.70, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $103.38 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.42.

Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.89 by $0.02. Church & Dwight had a return on equity of 20.03% and a net margin of 9.58%. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.96 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Church & Dwight Co., Inc. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Church & Dwight Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.295 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $1.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Church & Dwight’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.64%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CHD. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lifted its holdings in Church & Dwight by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 2,692 shares of the company’s stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC lifted its holdings in Church & Dwight by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 2,707 shares of the company’s stock worth $298,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in Church & Dwight by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 21,005 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,199,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its holdings in Church & Dwight by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 3,295 shares of the company’s stock worth $345,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HCR Wealth Advisors lifted its holdings in Church & Dwight by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. HCR Wealth Advisors now owns 11,754 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,231,000 after buying an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.60% of the company’s stock.

About Church & Dwight

Church & Dwight Co, Inc engages in the development, manufacture, and marketing of household, personal care, and specialty products. It operates through the following segments: Consumer Domestic, Consumer International, Specialty Products Division (SPD), and Corporate. The Consumer Domestic segment offers household products, such as laundry detergents, fabric softener sheets, cat litter, household cleaning products, and personal care products including antiperspirants, oral care products, depilatories, reproductive health products, oral analgesics, nasal saline moisturizers, and dietary supplements.