Avanza Fonder AB Invests $2.25 Million in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX)

Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new stake in The Clorox Company (NYSE:CLX) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 13,825 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,245,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Clorox by 11.9% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 802,237 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,483,000 after buying an additional 85,529 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in Clorox by 7.7% in the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 13,768 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,879,000 after acquiring an additional 980 shares during the last quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its position in Clorox by 13.4% during the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 11,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,584,000 after purchasing an additional 1,375 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its stake in Clorox by 15.8% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 55,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,611,000 after purchasing an additional 7,602 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in Clorox by 30.2% during the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 871 shares of the company’s stock worth $119,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the last quarter. 78.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Clorox Trading Down 0.1 %

NYSE CLX opened at $160.31 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.08, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 1.00. The Clorox Company has a fifty-two week low of $127.60 and a fifty-two week high of $171.37. The stock has a market cap of $19.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $164.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.38.

Clorox (NYSE:CLX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $1.86 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.36 by $0.50. Clorox had a net margin of 4.78% and a return on equity of 316.08%. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.49 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that The Clorox Company will post 6.87 earnings per share for the current year.

Clorox Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 29th will be given a dividend of $1.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $4.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.04%. Clorox’s payout ratio is 170.04%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CLX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Clorox from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $157.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Clorox from $167.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com cut shares of Clorox from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. DA Davidson upped their price target on shares of Clorox from $153.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Clorox from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $174.00 to $187.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.54.

About Clorox

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.