Barclays PLC Reduces Position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Barclays PLC lessened its stake in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 53.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 300,843 shares of the company’s stock after selling 350,454 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned about 0.24% of Clorox worth $48,859,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CLX. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Clorox by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Integral Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 1,718 shares of the company’s stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. HCR Wealth Advisors lifted its holdings in Clorox by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. HCR Wealth Advisors now owns 6,870 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,116,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the period. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC boosted its position in Clorox by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC now owns 1,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Clorox by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 7,624 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,238,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the period. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group raised its position in shares of Clorox by 163.8% in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 153 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. 78.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CLX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $150.00 target price on shares of Clorox in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Clorox from $173.00 to $151.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. StockNews.com cut shares of Clorox from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Clorox from $155.00 to $145.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Clorox from $176.00 to $154.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Clorox has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $153.83.

Clorox Stock Up 2.0 %

CLX stock opened at $139.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $17.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.61. The Clorox Company has a 12 month low of $127.60 and a 12 month high of $171.37. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $146.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $156.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.52, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.60.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 last year, the business earned $2.16 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The Clorox Company will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 23rd will be paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 23rd. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.50%. Clorox’s payout ratio 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.