The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) Stake Boosted by Empower Advisory Group LLC

Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,823 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Clorox were worth $297,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Clorox by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,277,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,339,150,000 after acquiring an additional 48,632 shares in the last quarter. Nuance Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of Clorox by 150.6% during the 2nd quarter. Nuance Investments LLC now owns 1,597,674 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,035,000 after acquiring an additional 960,094 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Clorox by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,492,717 shares of the company’s stock valued at $237,372,000 after acquiring an additional 31,510 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Clorox by 14.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 961,387 shares of the company’s stock valued at $131,200,000 after acquiring an additional 120,716 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Clorox by 26.5% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 882,526 shares of the company’s stock worth $135,099,000 after purchasing an additional 184,847 shares in the last quarter. 78.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Angela C. Hilt sold 1,733 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.52, for a total transaction of $286,846.16. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 13,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,229,719.92. This represents a 11.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Clorox Stock Performance

NYSE CLX opened at $167.69 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $20.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 58.43, a PEG ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 0.41. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $162.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $147.34. The Clorox Company has a twelve month low of $127.60 and a twelve month high of $169.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.08.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. Clorox had a net margin of 4.78% and a return on equity of 316.08%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 27.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that The Clorox Company will post 6.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Clorox Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 23rd were paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 23rd. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.91%. Clorox’s dividend payout ratio is 170.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CLX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Clorox from $140.00 to $139.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 14th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Clorox from $137.00 to $139.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Clorox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $174.00 to $187.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Clorox from $144.00 to $151.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Clorox from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Clorox has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $155.00.

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.