Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI Purchases 247 Shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI boosted its position in shares of The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) by 5.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,625 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 247 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI’s holdings in Clorox were worth $751,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vista Investment Partners II LLC purchased a new stake in Clorox during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $205,000. Independent Advisor Alliance raised its position in Clorox by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 15,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,438,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in Clorox by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 7,735 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,256,000 after purchasing an additional 540 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Clorox by 52.7% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 23,274 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,780,000 after purchasing an additional 8,034 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in Clorox by 202.5% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 149,662 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,307,000 after purchasing an additional 100,194 shares during the period. 78.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CLX. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Clorox from $145.00 to $155.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Clorox from $157.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Clorox from $171.00 to $173.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Clorox from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, January 5th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Clorox from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Clorox currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $159.62.

Clorox Stock Performance

Shares of CLX stock opened at $147.43 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 20.52, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The business has a fifty day moving average of $154.81 and a 200 day moving average of $160.32. The Clorox Company has a 1 year low of $127.60 and a 1 year high of $171.37.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last issued its earnings results 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 period last year, the business posted $2.16 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that The Clorox Company will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Clorox Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 23rd will be paid a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 23rd. This represents a $4.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.31%. Clorox’s payout ratio is currently 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.