National Pension Service Lowers Holdings in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

National Pension Service lowered its stake in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 199,713 shares of the company’s stock after selling 15,563 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.16% of Clorox worth $32,435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CLX. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position in shares of Clorox by 46,877.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 4,500,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $733,095,000 after buying an additional 4,490,421 shares in the last quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP raised its position in shares of Clorox by 512.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ilex Capital Partners UK LLP now owns 542,110 shares of the company’s stock valued at $88,315,000 after buying an additional 453,624 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Clorox by 302.0% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 353,367 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,390,000 after buying an additional 265,455 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Clorox by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,182,109 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,332,947,000 after buying an additional 245,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Clorox by 27.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 776,232 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,456,000 after buying an additional 168,111 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CLX. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of Clorox from $171.00 to $169.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Clorox from $145.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $150.00 target price on shares of Clorox in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Clorox from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Clorox from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Clorox has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $158.21.

Clorox Price Performance

CLX stock opened at $156.52 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $156.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $160.15. The Clorox Company has a 12-month low of $127.60 and a 12-month high of $171.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.76, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.52.

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

Clorox Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 23rd. Clorox’s payout ratio is 133.33%.

Clorox Company 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.