ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Has $269,000 Stock Position in Colgate-Palmolive Company $CL

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. cut its stake in shares of Colgate-Palmolive Company (NYSE:CL) by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,961 shares of the company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Colgate-Palmolive were worth $269,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 0.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 81,758,257 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,660,749,000 after acquiring an additional 455,198 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Colgate-Palmolive by 18.3% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 34,009,078 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,186,651,000 after acquiring an additional 5,269,140 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Colgate-Palmolive by 34.5% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,980,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $747,762,000 after buying an additional 2,045,191 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in shares of Colgate-Palmolive by 3.7% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 7,176,598 shares of the company’s stock worth $672,447,000 after buying an additional 253,604 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Colgate-Palmolive by 2.6% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 6,976,654 shares of the company’s stock worth $653,761,000 after buying an additional 177,833 shares during the last quarter. 80.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Colgate-Palmolive Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:CL opened at $78.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.79, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.57. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $83.29 and a 200-day moving average of $88.32. The company has a market cap of $63.05 billion, a PE ratio of 21.91, a PEG ratio of 4.06 and a beta of 0.34. Colgate-Palmolive Company has a one year low of $77.91 and a one year high of $102.61.

Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) last posted its earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The company reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $5.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. Colgate-Palmolive had a net margin of 14.55% and a return on equity of 377.63%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.91 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Colgate-Palmolive Company will post 3.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Colgate-Palmolive Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 17th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. Colgate-Palmolive’s payout ratio is presently 58.43%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $104.00 to $96.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Colgate-Palmolive in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $87.00 to $82.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $99.00 to $95.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Colgate-Palmolive presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $94.83.

About Colgate-Palmolive

Colgate-Palmolive Company, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells consumer products in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Oral, Personal and Home Care; and Pet Nutrition. The Oral, Personal and Home Care segment offers toothpaste, toothbrushes, mouthwash, bar and liquid hand soaps, shower gels, shampoos, conditioners, deodorants and antiperspirants, skin health products, dishwashing detergents, fabric conditioners, household cleaners, and other related items.