Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Reduces Position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board cut its stake in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 37.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,270 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,779 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board’s holdings in Clorox were worth $2,748,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CLX. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Clorox during the fourth quarter valued at $128,382,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its position in Clorox by 75.9% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,130,481 shares of the company’s stock valued at $148,161,000 after purchasing an additional 487,974 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Clorox by 17,658.5% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 484,453 shares of the company’s stock valued at $69,078,000 after purchasing an additional 481,725 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Clorox by 39.6% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,467,713 shares of the company’s stock valued at $192,319,000 after purchasing an additional 415,999 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC lifted its position in Clorox by 17.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,415,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $316,517,000 after purchasing an additional 357,964 shares during the period. 78.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CLX. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $162.00 price objective on shares of Clorox in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Clorox from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Clorox from $155.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Clorox from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $145.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Clorox in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “sell” rating and a $140.00 price objective for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and thirteen have assigned a hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $146.43.

Clorox Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of CLX stock traded down $2.07 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $131.97. The company had a trading volume of 347,788 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,249,008. The company’s fifty day moving average is $144.61 and its 200 day moving average is $144.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.73, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.53. The Clorox Company has a fifty-two week low of $114.68 and a fifty-two week high of $169.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.39 billion, a PE ratio of 69.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.44.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.38. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. Clorox had a net margin of 3.33% and a return on equity of 302.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.51 EPS. Research analysts expect that The Clorox Company will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 24th were issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 23rd. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.64%. Clorox’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 248.71%.

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.