Wall Street Zen Upgrades Clorox (NYSE:CLX) to Hold

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on CLX. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $95.00 target price on shares of Clorox in a research note on Monday, October 19th. Evercore raised Clorox from an “underperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $99.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, November 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $74.00 price target on shares of Clorox in a research note on Tuesday, November 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Clorox from $87.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 4th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane lowered their price target on Clorox from $97.00 to $95.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Clorox presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $93.79.

Clorox Stock Down 0.2%

CLX stock opened at $99.80 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $87.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $99.67. The company has a market cap of $12.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.95, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.59. Clorox has a 12-month low of $79.12 and a 12-month high of $128.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 32.91.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 2nd. The company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.07 by $0.48. Clorox had a net margin of 9.41% and a return on equity of 608.30%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.88 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.85 EPS. Clorox’s revenue was up 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Clorox will post 5.75 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Clorox

In other Clorox news, Director Pierre Breber bought 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $100.06 per share, with a total value of $400,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 22,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,201,320. This represents a 22.22% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.51% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Clorox

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Clorox by 11.8% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 75,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,171,000 after acquiring an additional 7,956 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in Clorox during the second quarter worth approximately $3,277,000. Corient Private Wealth LP bought a new stake in Clorox during the second quarter worth approximately $6,621,000. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Clorox by 3,309.3% in the third quarter. Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC now owns 186,316 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,093,000 after buying an additional 180,851 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Clorox by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,405,774 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,680,000 after buying an additional 80,618 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.53% of the company’s stock.

About Clorox

The Clorox Company is a consumer products company founded in 1913 and headquartered in Oakland, California. It makes and markets products for household cleaning, food, water filtration, personal care and pet care.

Its portfolio includes Clorox disinfecting and cleaning products, Glad trash bags and food-storage products, Kingsford charcoal, Brita water filters, Hidden Valley dressings and sauces, Burt’s Bees personal-care products, and Fresh Step cat litter. The company also sells products under brands such as Pine-Sol and Liquid-Plumr.

Clorox serves consumers primarily in the United States and also sells products in international markets.