Groupama Asset Managment Purchases New Position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Groupama Asset Managment acquired a new position in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 12,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,939,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Clorox by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,507,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,518,517,000 after buying an additional 124,428 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Clorox by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,182,109 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,332,947,000 after acquiring an additional 245,525 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Clorox by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,098,302 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,925,000 after purchasing an additional 69,969 shares during the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Clorox by 1.7% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,334,826 shares of the company’s stock valued at $380,370,000 after purchasing an additional 37,967 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Clorox during the fourth quarter worth about $259,041,000. 78.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Clorox Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of CLX stock opened at $147.77 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.37, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $150.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $158.66. The Clorox Company has a 1 year low of $127.60 and a 1 year high of $171.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.52, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.60.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 3rd. The company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.16. Clorox had a return on equity of 316.87% and a net margin of 6.38%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.16 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that The Clorox Company will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 23rd will be issued a dividend of $1.22 per share. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 23rd. Clorox’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 133.33%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on CLX. StockNews.com cut shares of Clorox from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of Clorox in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Barclays decreased their target price on Clorox from $140.00 to $139.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Clorox from $171.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Clorox from $161.00 to $155.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Clorox currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $159.00.

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.