Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Increases Position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 41.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 554,688 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 163,341 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Clorox were worth $90,088,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CLX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Clorox by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,507,152 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,518,517,000 after buying an additional 124,428 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Clorox by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,098,302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,925,000 after acquiring an additional 69,969 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Clorox by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,344,408 shares of the company’s stock valued at $380,761,000 after purchasing an additional 9,582 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Clorox during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $259,041,000. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Clorox by 75.4% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,361,758 shares of the company’s stock worth $221,163,000 after purchasing an additional 585,526 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on CLX. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Clorox from $171.00 to $169.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Clorox from $145.00 to $155.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Clorox from $139.00 to $134.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Clorox from $155.00 to $145.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Clorox from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Clorox currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $153.83.

Clorox Stock Up 0.5 %

CLX opened at $138.28 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $145.61 and its 200-day moving average is $155.63. The Clorox Company has a one year low of $127.60 and a one year high of $171.37. The company has a market capitalization of $17.03 billion, a PE ratio of 37.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.52, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.16. Clorox had a net margin of 6.38% and a return on equity of 316.87%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.16 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that The Clorox Company will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 23rd will be given a $1.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 23rd. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.53%. Clorox’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 133.33%.

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.