Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) Price Target Raised to $88.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) had its target price raised by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $83.00 to $88.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “underweight” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price indicates a potential downside of 5.89% from the company’s current price.

CL has been the subject of several other reports. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $97.00 to $99.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $95.00 to $93.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Colgate-Palmolive from $111.00 to $104.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Colgate-Palmolive from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $102.06.

Colgate-Palmolive Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE CL traded down $0.39 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $93.51. The stock had a trading volume of 590,526 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,125,126. Colgate-Palmolive has a 12 month low of $85.32 and a 12 month high of $109.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.40, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.92. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $89.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $93.35. The company has a market capitalization of $75.84 billion, a PE ratio of 26.57, a P/E/G ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.40.

Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 31st. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.01. Colgate-Palmolive had a net margin of 14.38% and a return on equity of 477.77%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.87 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Colgate-Palmolive will post 3.75 EPS for the current year.

Colgate-Palmolive announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, March 20th that allows the company to repurchase $5.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 6.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Colgate-Palmolive

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of CL. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 81,303,059 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,391,261,000 after acquiring an additional 588,230 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Colgate-Palmolive by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,436,276 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,028,170,000 after purchasing an additional 1,784,411 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,518,014 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,868,723,000 after purchasing an additional 324,683 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Colgate-Palmolive in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $912,375,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Colgate-Palmolive by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 9,497,819 shares of the company’s stock valued at $863,447,000 after buying an additional 993,328 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.41% of the company’s stock.

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.