Exeter Financial LLC Increases Stock Position in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Exeter Financial LLC increased its position in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 16.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 10,073 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,425 shares during the quarter. Exeter Financial LLC’s holdings in Clorox were worth $1,476,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CLX. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in Clorox during the 4th quarter worth about $144,844,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Clorox in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $128,382,000. Parsifal Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Clorox during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $128,245,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Clorox in the 1st quarter worth approximately $135,630,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its position in Clorox by 75.9% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,130,481 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,161,000 after acquiring an additional 487,974 shares in the last quarter. 78.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CLX. UBS Group dropped their target price on Clorox from $164.00 to $159.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on Clorox from $145.00 to $142.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Clorox from $140.00 to $135.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Clorox from $136.00 to $132.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of Clorox in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and fourteen have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Clorox presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $145.33.

Clorox Price Performance

Shares of NYSE CLX traded up $1.25 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $136.54. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 326,749 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,257,244. The Clorox Company has a 1-year low of $114.68 and a 1-year high of $169.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 70.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.73, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $137.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $143.92.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The company reported $1.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. Clorox had a return on equity of 302.49% and a net margin of 3.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.51 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The Clorox Company will post 5.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.